It is impossible to imagine the modern gambling industry without RNG slots, tested by 3rd parties. Due to their brightness and ease of use, they have gained popularity among the majority of visitors to land-based and online casinos. Find out more about when the first slot in the world appeared and how technical progress changed everything.
Beginning With The Bell
The first slot machine was completely mechanical. It was a machine with three reels and a special receiver for coins. The apparatus called Liberty Bell, the “Liberty Bell,” was operated with a handle. She subsequently gave a familiar name to all types of such machines – one-armed bandit. This machine was invented by the American auto mechanic Charles August Faye; he collected slots by hand and then rented them out.
Liberty Bell began to be used in 1887 in San Francisco; to start the game, you had to throw a 5 cent coin into the receiver. Three reels rotated separately; bells and suits of ordinary cards were depicted on their disks. There was no mechanism for automatically receiving a cash prize, so the institution’s owner, where the car was parked, replaced it. The Liberty Bell jackpot was ten times the stake, with three bells winning 50 cents.
The Electric Shock that Shock the Slot Industry
The use of electricity was an important step. The first slot where the mechanics were activated not by the usual jerk of the handle but by a more complex system was the Jackpot Bell from Jennings. This device appeared in 1930; its filling consisted of a wheel mechanism driven by an electric motor. Thus, already in the 50s, the latest engines with a capacity of five horsepower began to be used in slot machines.
The real breakthrough was the invention of the slot machine, which itself could give out cash prizes to the winners. It happened in 1966 when the Bally company released an eight-reel Money Honey machine with images of twenty characters. Upon receiving the jackpot, the coins spilled out into a special tray, emitting a characteristic sound, the imitation of which can be heard in the audio design of modern electronic slots.
The Beginning of Video Slots
Technological progress did not stand still; over time, the lever in gaming machines became utterly unnecessary. Already in 1976, the prototype of a modern video slot was created in California. Fortune Coin Co-created it. The machine used a Sony Trinitron color receiver, tested at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. After revision, bug fixes, and approval from the regulator of the state of Nevada, the slot machine began to be widely used in Las Vegas establishments.
The peak of popularity of electronic slot machines came in the eighties of the XX century. At that time, computer technology reached the stage of development that allowed the creation of video poker. The principle of operation of the machine was based on a random number generator, which gave users confidence that they would not be deceived.
Electronics was entirely responsible for receiving money, just like for losing a bet in such slots. The tiny board replaces the bulky drums, gears, and other parts of the previous generation. Already in 1985, slots and conventional table gambling games became equal in popularity among casino customers. In the early nineties, slot machines came out on top, attracting most users and bringing substantial income to the owners of establishments.
The variety of modern slot machines is enormous. There can be several tens or even hundreds of winning lines in such slots. The slot machines differ in bonuses, recoil, volatility, design, and many other characteristics. Modern slot machines are nothing more than advanced and powerful computers with a new generation random number generator. The operating principle of online casino slots is the same.
Going Online
The first virtual slot machines appeared already in 1995 when the online casino Gaming Club was opened. A year earlier, the state of Antigua and Barbuda entered into a free trade agreement in the Caribbean, which gave impetus to the legal development of virtual gambling establishments.
At the same time, Microgaming started releasing software for online casinos. It was these developers who subsequently created virtual adaptations of popular slots. Already in 1996, two hundred gambling sites opened around the world, and in 1998, technology allowed the first poker rooms to be launched on the Internet. According to statistics, today, slots generate 70% of the income of any gambling resource. Moreover, the development and spread of the Internet allowed the introduction of the progressive jackpot system, which immediately gave rise to a real boom in online betting games.
