Slots and pokies are a number of the oldest gambling games in today’s world. They saw their beginnings in the beginning of the 20th century, and also have attracted a vast audience since. Here is a synopsis of slot machine game history and how they have developed over the years.
The first ever version of the slot machine was seen 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 are most acquainted today. The device 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 slots in the early 20th century.
The ban only lasted a couple of years, and it wasn’t a long time before slots became popular again in casinos. It had been during the 1950s that slot machines started to become popular around the world. In 1953, Australian gaming company Aristocrat took note of the 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 it would be quite some time before we’d see online slots, casinos in Las Vegas started making electronic slots, moving away from the normal, mechanical slot games that had become popular over the years. These machines were better than mechanical slots and managed to get more difficult for folks to cheat casinos. During this time period, electronic slots also saw the invention of the random number generator which made playing slots even more unpredictable.
Over the next few decades, slots would remain exactly the same. It wouldn’t be until the turn of the Century that people 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 some 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, along with creating over 80% of land-based casino revenue. In the internet, players can find a huge selection of different online slots games, a lot of which feature fun and inventive themes. Players are also able to find a wide range of branded and themed slot s games, featuring innovative gaming technology.