These symbols were the eponymous bells, hearts, spades, diamonds, and horseshoes. This used three spinning reels with five symbols on each. History of Slot Machines at the Turn of the 1900sįinally, in 1894-5, a Bavarian-born San Franciscan named Charles Fey created the “Liberty Bell”, the first true slot machine. A big problem, however, was that automatic payouts were impossible due to a large amount of winning combinations. The 10 of spades and jack of hearts were not included on most machines, which made it harder for people to get a royal flush. Like before, people would put nickels in and get drinks or cigars as prizes based on the hands they won. This machine had five drums, and each drum had 10 different card faces on it, which made it a primitive slot poker machine. In 1891 a Brooklyn establishment developed a machine that was closer to what we know today. These were novelty machines that featured things like toy horses racing around a small track, and patrons of bars and saloons would often bet nickels or tokens that could be redeemed for drinks and cigars. The name comes from dropping a nickel into the coin slot to get the product you wanted.īy 1885, the first machines designed for gambling were created, but they bore little resemblance to what we call a slot machine today. The term “slot machine” originally referred to standard vending machines when it was first coined back in the 1880s. What you may not know is that the history of slot machines is fascinating and shows just where they’re headed in the future. You put your money in, pull the lever and hope that the reels match up for the big payout.

Bar symbol on slot machine