What is Slot Gaming - The History of Slot Machines

There’s no denying that slot machines have come a very long way since the very first one was invented by a car mechanic called Charles Fey in San Francisco in 1895. It was called the Liberty Bell and had three spinning reels with diamond, spade and heart symbols as well as the jackpot-winning cracked Liberty Bell. The fact that this jackpot was just fifty cents gives an idea of just how much slot pay-outs have increased in the last 120 years.

Slot machines have always been traditionally the biggest money-makers for casinos and that’s why you’ll find bank upon bank of them flashing their lights enticingly to encourage passing customers to pop a coin or two in and try their luck. For the player it’s a simple decision whether to play or not and playing the machine is probably one of the simplest forms of gambling in the casino – you put in the money, pull the handle or press the button and discover whether you’ve won or lost.

But, as with all things, from the simple machines of the past, the drive to improve the user experience for players has been strong so with each generation more and more developments have been added.

This is just as true of online slots as it is in physical machines with the overriding aim to make playing any slot machine as immersive experience as possible.

Relatively early in the development of slots they became themed around anything from board games like Monopoly to popular films of the time and the basic premise of having to match symbols or create different combinations gave great flexibility to designers to do this in a creative and appealing way.

Today this has been taken even further with games being designed to appeal specifically to fans of a particular film franchise or series. You only have to look to the sheer number of slots based around Marvel Comics superheroes to get the picture. The increasing sophistication of the technology also means that these games can also do far more than present the player with spinning reels therefore providing interactive online slot games that take the player on more of an in-game journey than ever before. For example they can also include film clips as part of the action and incorporate video game elements too.

There’s also a continuing trend to link slots to major sports events so earlier this summer saw a number of football-based games being released to tie in with the Euro championships and there are an equally wide number of Olympics-themed ones too.

As slots are such big business and there is such a need amongst players for novelty a great deal of time and effort goes into developing each new game, treating it almost like a film or TV script with characters, storylines and even the emotional tone being carefully considered.

The results are games that not only offer good chances of winning but are actually fun to play too, often with different levels to be reached, again much in the style of a video game.

As to what the future holds, virtual reality seems to be taking the world by storm so it’s highly likely that this will come into play with slots too. So before long you may not just be watching elements of your favourite sport, TV programme or movie, you could also be part of it too.

The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of EconoTimes and EconoTimes does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.