Nowadays slot machines are one of the most popular gambling entertainments and it seems that indigenously. But it has passed a lot of time before slot machine takes its modern form.
Its history begins in 1985 when a talented immigrant from Bavaria, Charles August Fey designed the first prototype of a slot machine. At early age Charles showed a keen interest to all mechanical things which he could take to pieces and assemble again, and it happens so that this childish passion turned into the cause of his life.
After Charles saw nickel-in-the-slot machines in San Francisco he became obsessed with an idea to make his own mechanism. And he had done this. In 1895 Charles Fey presented his first 3 wheel slot machine in public. It was called Liberty Bell after saloon where it was placed and rapidly earned unheard popularity within gamblers' circle.
Charles Fey focused on the customer's needs realizing that there were really ample possibilities in the industry and decided to launch his own company. For the next 50 years he had been an incontestable leader of slot machine manufacturing and design.
But not everything was so sunny. In 1909 a government announced slot machines illegal and forbade their usage in San Francisco and in the whole California. Nevertheless, Charles Fey found a method to get over the difficulties: he just changed the design of slot machines so they could not have been regarded as gambling machines no longer. Charles used symbols of bells, stars and horseshoes instead of playing cards on reels.
Despite all the deceptions and tricks a drastic arm of law finally banned all slot apparatus and Charles Fey was fined and even arrested. But this guy seems to be really carried away with slot machines because he not only continued his routine affairs but also cooperated with Mills Novelty Company in order to work out new projects of slots improvements. Soon, they added a gooseneck coin entrance to slot machines' design and presented new fruit symbols. Unfortunately, in 1915 Mills company changed their production from iron machines to the cheaper wooden ones. As for Charles Fey, he successfully continued his activities till his death in 1944.
Further, slot machines history became tightly connected to the Mills Novelty Company which in 1930 designed a machine that worked much quieter and called 'Silent Bell'. They also developed an idea about double jackpots and different casino slot odds, which made slot machines even more popular.
The next important point in a slot industry is an invention of the Castle Front machine in 1933 which replaced the old versions completely. It was designed so that players could have seen the coins moving separately across the top of slot apparatus.
Another important innovation was added to slot machines in 1960. Despite the government approval of the Transportation of Gambling Devices Act, the Bally Corporation equipped slot machines with some electromechanical details which made them much more functional.
In 1970 the next breakthrough in slot industry happened: International Game Technology (IGT) company developed and presented Video slots which became a fashionable hit immediately. A little bit later Random Number Generators (RNG) were introduced and successfully implemented into slot machines. Nowadays, the whole concept of slot machine mechanism is based on RNG performance.
