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Charles Fey, Theodore Holtz, Herbert Stephen Mill
The first slot machine that looked like the ones we know now was invented in
San Francisco in 1899. The inventor was the Bavarian immigrant named
Charles Fey. Fey and and his partner Theodore Holtz had quit their jobs with
the California Electric Works in 1894, and started their own company, Holtz
and Fey Electric Works.
In 1895, Holtz and Fey Electric Works released their first coin-operated
machine, 4-11-44. The 4-11-44 machine was the gaming machine that had
three numbered dials one behind the other. The 4-11-44 made a smash hit.
In 1899, their masterpiece and the first reel slot, named "Liberty Bell". was
released. Liberty Bell was shaped just like current slots. It had three reels, a
pay-out schedule, and a coin acceptor and a large handle on the right side of
the machine. Fey and Holtz placed their first Liberty Bell in a San Francisco
saloon to test its worth. Liberty Bell got popularity rapidly and Holtz and Fey
Electric Works grew as the giant in the slot machine manufacturing.
In 1909, Herbert Stephen Mill from Chicago modified the Fay's machine. He
added ten more symbols to each reel, and make it more mobile and space
saving. The new machine was named Mills' Liberty Bell
The Electronic Age
One of the biggest innovations on slot machine was the birth of electronic
machines. Before the electronic age, slot machines were mechanical. All
slot machines had a big handle which players have to pull to start the reels
spinning and play the game game . ("one-armed-bandits")
Electronic slots have two advantage compared with mechanical slots. First
is that they are more secure than mechanical slots. Mechanical slots were
operated mechanically, thus players could cheat on them easily. Electronic
slots solved that problem. Second, operators can offer bigger prizes on
electronic machines. Mechanical slots had limitation on the prize, because
they had physical limitation to make stops on the reels. However, on
electronic slots, operators can make stops as much as they want. As the
result of this technological advance, operators are able to give large prizes to
players.
Video machines
The first video slot was introduced 1975 by Walt Fraley in Las Vegas. The
first video slot, named Fortune Coin, was a very simple machine, which had
only three components, a solid state logic assembly, a television set, and a
hopper. By the mid 1970's, electronic video slot machines had spread. Even
though the new technology was introduced, they were still the minority in
casino games for a long time. Video slots were not well accepted in the
market. Players doubted if they were able to hit prizes because they could
not see the actual spinning reels on the video slots. It was not until the
1980's when video poker machines became popular, that video machines
penetrated the market.
The first video poker machines were introduced by Dale Electronics in 1970.
They simplified the rules of the America's favorite game and adapted it to the
video game. Although prevalent in Nevada casinos, it was not a big hit. The
turning point came in 1979 when IGT introduced the first well-accepted video
poker machine, DRAW POKER. It became a smash hit, and video slots
began to penetrate to the market widely as IGT's DRAW POKER spread into
the industry.
William "Si" Redd and IGT
IGT, International Game Technology, was founded in 1975 by William "Si"
Redd. He got his start in the coin machine industry back in Mississippi
during the 1930's, when he purchased, at age 18, a Bally pinball machine for
$16. He spent 35 years in the amusement machine field. In 1967, after
having success fully established himself as a distributor for several
companies, Redd met Bill O'Donnell, the president of Bally Manufacturing
Corp. He moved to Nevada from Mississippi and became a distributor for the
Bally slot machine.
The biggest turning point for IGT was in 1978 when IGT purchased Fortune
Coin Company, which was the company that introduced the first video slot
machine in the industry, adaptingthe latter's machines of a wide rage of
video slots by changing the logic assembly and the front door components.
becoming the second largest manufacturer in the slot industry through
specializing only in video slots.
MEGABUCKS
On March 6, 1986 MEGABUCKS started with 125 machines in nine casinos
around Nevada. MEGABUCKS was the 3-coin dollar progressive slot. The
trait of MEGABUCKS was all MEGABUCKS machines were linked together
and kept same progressive meters. Because of that, player could expect to
have bigger prizes. Three years later after they were introduced, carousels
were located in over 100 casinos and had paid off many jackpots between
2.2 and 6.8 million plus more than 600 Mega Mini jackpots which have
reached over $12,000. IGT owns the slots and pays the large wins with an
annuity spreads over 20 years.
