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Slots: A Bit of History

The bandit may only have one arm and three spinning eyes, but legions of victims have willingly given all their cash to him. They even shake hands with him, repeatedly, as if to say thank you. Occasionally, very occasionally, the bandit's so moved by their generosity that he gives all their money back, and then some.

It was inevitable that the machine age would catch on to gambling, and no device has had more impact than the slot machine. For all the lure of the crap tables and blackjack dealers, it's the slots that turned Las Vegas into a gambling mecca, accounting for the bulk of the casinos' revenue, as much as two-thirds in some cases, and pumping billions into the gaming industry's coffers.

Charles Fey, a 29-year-old mechanic, invented the slot machine in 1890, in San Francisco. He could never have guessed his creation would one day outnumber smoky card rooms, and crowded roulette wheels, in gambling palaces all over the world. Fey produced the first nickel-operated machine in his workshop, dubbed it the Liberty Belle, and leased it to a local gambling hall. The San Francisco Chronicle described it thus: "A machine featuring three reels, mostly hidden, with horseshoe, spade, diamond, heart, and bell symbols, on reels. The device is operated by depositing a nickel in a slot to release the handle, when the right combination of symbols stops in the window the player is awarded coins ranging from two, on two horseshoes, to 20 for three bells. Most of those present agreed the machine should be a great success". So it was, even after being banned in California. (State agents twice raided Fey's workshop, dumping his machines in San Francisco Bay).

After legalized gambling returned to Nevada in 1931, the slot machine, whose basic mechanism went unchanged for 70 years, began its slow dominance of the casino floor. Refinements occurred with the appearance of computers, including the invention of the slot's diabolical cousin, the video poker machine. "I honestly thought video poker would be a novelty game", said its inventor Si Redd, "that people would put a few dollars into, and then go to the slots and table games". In his favor, Redd is credited with making slot payouts more liberal.

Today, there is a bewildering variety of slot machines, but the basic idea remains the same. You pay your money and take your chance, playing at your own pace, a solitary gambler genuflecting to that lucky ghost in the machine, praying for the reels to line up. As the tagline for Megabucks, Nevada's largest progressive slot jackpot, puts it: 'One pull can change your life.'