He dropped from 5 drums to 3 and removed the vast range of cards that were represented in a poker game to include just hearts, diamonds, horseshoe, spades and the now infamous, Liberty Bell. The design of the machine moved away from poker and instead made it a lot easier to both function and play. The Liberty Bell was designed at the start of 1887 and its release occurred gradually, mainly across New York City, up to 1895 before it became a little more mainstream. What was needed was more automation.Ĭue Charles August Fey and his Liberty Bell.įey took on the role of altering the machine that had been created by Sittman and Pitt to make it fully automatic. These machines grew in popularity with players, but it was time-consuming for landlords to police them and continually have to payout.

At the time, there were no monetary winnings, instead, winning combinations were paid out behind the bar in the form of cigars, free drinks, and other rewards. The games were a little different to what you see now, with players needing to make poker hands on the 5 drums (reel) set up which included 50 cards across the 5 drums. The machine was derived from poker and it allowed players who were no longer active at the tables, to continue to play on their machines. In 1891 Sittman and Pitt created the first incarnation of what would later become a slot machine. We need to head back to the late 19th century to start our journey when the humble slot machine first came about. Where It All Began: How Poker Led to the Invention of the Slot Machine We’ll also talk about the future of slots and what you need to look out for over the next few decades. In this article, we want to look at where it all started and how we’ve got to where we are today as the most popular casino game in the world. The history of slots is rich in that evolution and even though the games are very different in how they look now compared to back then, the fundamentals of the slot machine remain very much the same. The evolution of slot machines has been incredible to sit back and watch.

How were early slot machines programmed