Invention
Charles August Fey, a San Francisco auto mechanic, invents the Liberty Bell mechanical slot machine in 1897. There are five symbols on her three reels, and it was not difficult to cheat on her, as the reels were controlled by a lever. Therefore, the maximum gain was only 50 cents.
Popularity growth
For 1898 – 1909, no significant changes occurred in the design of slot machines. Several new companies are making machines that resemble the Liberty Bell with their device, but differ in appearance. The gaming industry is developing rapidly because the demand for slot machines is very high.
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Ban
The beginning of the century was unsuccessful for manufacturers of slot machines. Opponents of the gambling business managed to ban gaming machines in 1909, first in San Francisco, then in Nevada, and, finally, throughout California.
Electro-mechanical slot machines
The company Bally Manufacturing in 1964 produces the machine “Money Honey”, which has a number of significant differences from its predecessors. Firstly, the inside of the machine was now stuffed not with springs, but with electronics, and secondly, there was sound design, lighting, the ability to bet with various coins and a special coin store for paying prizes.
The emergence of video slot machines
In 1975, Walt Fraley invented the Fortune Coin video game, which was not immediately popular. Players were very skeptical of the new technology, trusting the real spinning reels of widespread slots much more than the virtual reels of the new game.
International game technology
Seeing the potential of video slots and understanding their advantages, the International Game Technology (IGT) company in 1976 acquired the game maker Fortune Coin and used this technology to launch a whole line of new games on the market. This company is the second largest manufacturer of slot machines and specializes in video slots.
Video poker
It was the invention of video poker in 1979 that caused the popularity of video slots. Players quickly got used to video poker machines, and manufacturers launched the first wave of video slots on the market.
Innovations, slot machines and bonus games
From the very beginning of the eighties, manufacturers of slot machines constantly added various exciting innovations to their video slots: combining jackpots within the state, and then the country as a whole, into a common progressive jackpot and bonus games. By combining slot machines in the network, casinos have the opportunity to accumulate multi-million dollar jackpots, which quickly increase in size and are often played out. Today it is very difficult to find a video slot without any bonus game.
Brand new slot machine
At the end of 2006, a fundamentally new IGT Guaranteed Play slot machine, created on the basis of video poker, was tested at several casinos in Las Vegas. This machine guarantees the player that he will definitely be in the game for a certain amount of time, and not lose all his money in a couple of minutes, i.e., in fact, the players were able to buy a certain number of games for a fixed fee. For example, in the popular Jacks or Better type of video poker, you can buy 150 for $ 20, and 400 hands for $ 40. Tests have shown that such machines will find their client. The developers of the machine from the company IGT believe that current consumers of gambling prefer a guarantee even in gambling.
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