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Slot machines were invented in the late 1800's by a man named
Charles Fey. He created the first machine in the basement of his home. The
machines didn’t become popular until years later when they were installed in
Bugsy Siegel's infamous Flamingo Hilton hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fey's first
machine was not any more bulky or any cruder than modern day examples. Nor did
its reels carry the fruit symbols common today. The standard playing card
imagery was what we are all used to - hearts, diamonds, spades, bells,
horseshoes and stars. The first slot machine was actually called the Liberty
Bell, and can still be seen today in a collection at the Liberty Belle Saloon
and Restaurant in Reno, Nevada.
The San Francisco Chronicle described Fey's machine: "A machine featuring 3
reels mostly hidden with Horseshoes, Spades, Diamonds, Hearts, Bells symbols on
reels. The device is operated by depositing a nickel in a slot to release the
handle, when the right combination of symbols stop in the window the player is
awarded coins ranging from 2, on 2 Horseshoes to 20 for 3 bells. Most of those
present agreed the machine should be a great success.”
A great success it has been, without room for disagreement. The movement of
money is an interesting thing in and of itself. Just how much money was fed into
the machines in Nevada and the Caribbean to get to the $300 million yearly gross
revenue? If we do a little basic math… working on the average that 10 cents of
each dollar deposited is retained by the player, then $3 billion worth of
pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, etc. move through the machines. The details
of the slot machines in discussion here are necessary knowledge for anyone who
wants to make this an important part of their day.
Essentially, a cabinet housing contains three or more narrow cylindrical drums,
commonly called reels, which are marked with symbols. Vertically disposed on a
common axis, the reels are caused to revolve freely when a player activates the
machine and pulls a lever-like handle affixed in the side of the cabinet.
Payoffs are handled instantly, based on the horizontal alignment of symbols
after the reels come to rest.
Nickel and quarter machines are by far the most popular, and account for about
85% of reel action in any given year. This popularity is followed by the dime
boxes, then half dollar and silver dollar machines. You can now find machines
that accept $5 bills, and some rather large progressive jackpot machines that
take $100 bills!
The modern, deluxe, single coin one armed bandits with a nice shiny chrome
finish can run you as much as $1,700 to own for yourself. But even if you're
thinking of dropping that coin, check and make sure it’s legal to own a slot
machine in the state or country you live in.
You may be familiar with the name 'Big Bertha' when it comes to the reels. This
machine was designed to accept half dollars and dollars, and to pay back about
80% of what it takes in. The box is made for the most part to be a propaganda
machine, catching customers’ imaginations and desires in one big metal mental
image. Well it worked, which is proofed by the appearance of the Super Big
Bertha. This six by ten foot super slot machine is said to have cost more than
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to produce. A Five horsepower electric
motor is needed to power the twenty-inch wide chain driven wheels. With eight
reels containing 20 symbols each, there are 25.6 billion different possible
combinations. That's right BILLION. Only one of which actually pays the 1
million dollar promised prize. A little more basic math shows that with these
odds, one individual would have to put about 205 billion one dollar spins to
work to mathematically hit the million dollar prize. Not the best return on
investment ever conceived, except from the casinos point of view. A
long-standing record of $65,093 was won in one slots pull on a one-dollar
progressive at Harold's Club in Reno in 1973. Quite recently (in 2001) a woman
won over $1,000,000 in an Ontario, Canada casino. It's worth noting the machine
was a progressive that was $100 a pull. In addition to being the biggest revenue
producer, our friendly one arm pals have also been the single biggest cause of
police raids, legal indictments, and courts decisions over all other forms of
gambling combined. Part of the problem is the manner of play. No other style of
gambling creates such a hypnotic fascination. The term zombie has been married
to the reels in American popular culture for years now.
It's seen time and time again that it is very difficult to resist the temptation
to drop a coin when given the opportunity. Even those who have a moral problem
with the concept of gambling have been shown to be affected by this phenomenon.
The antecedents of this common behavior are rather indefinable, but it can most
likely be largely attributed to two things, one just stated, the temptation to
drop a coin with hopes of a massively large payoff for an insignificant bet, and
the other is probably the mechanical attraction produced by the machines. The
action of placing a bet lets you see the light show, and watch the reels spin.
There is a larger level of excitement in reel players when they hit a jackpot
than other gamblers when they win large sums. The complications behind this
phenomenon are too complex to discuss here, but rely largely on the mental
expectations and experience of players in each style of high stakes gaming.
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Slot Machine | Slots
