Slots and pokies are some of the oldest gambling games in the modern world. They saw their beginnings in the beginning of the 20th century, and also have attracted a vast audience since. Here is an overview of slot machine history and how they will have developed over the years.
The first ever version of the slot machine was observed in 1891. Pittman and Sachs created a machine with five drums, each showing poker hand symbols. When players would win at these games, the machine would not pay out; rather, the bar housing them would provide players with drinks.
It might be four more years before Charles Fey would create the version of the slot machine with which we have been most acquainted today. The machine provided players with cash payouts when it revealed matching symbols. The popularity of these games caught on rapidly, until anti-gambling groups enacted a ban on slot machines in the first 20th century.
The ban only lasted a few years, and it wasn’t a long time before slots became popular again in casinos. It was during the 1950s that slots started to become popular around the world. In 1953, Australian gaming company Aristocrat took note of the brand new trend and decided to manufacture its own brand of electronic gaming machines called pokies. The company’s first machine was called the ‘Clubman’.
Although jokerslot would be quite a while before we’d see online slots, casinos in NEVADA started making electronic slots, moving away from the normal, mechanical slot games that had become popular over time. These machines were better than mechanical slots and managed to get more difficult for individuals to cheat casinos. During this time, electronic slots also saw the invention of the random number generator which made playing slots even more unpredictable.
On the next few decades, slots would remain the same. It wouldn’t be until the turn of the Century that we begin seeing the advent of online slots. The initial online slots games were seen around 2001, when the first internet casinos went live. Companies like Microgaming got on the ground floor, creating a few of the first online slot machines available to the public.
For the past a decade, slots have become one of the most popular games at online casinos, in addition to making up over 80% of land-based casino revenue. In the online world, players can find hundreds of different online slots games, many of which feature fun and inventive themes. Players are also able to find a wide variety of branded and themed slots games, featuring innovative gaming technology.