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Slots today are much more sophisticated than they were in previous decades. The first reel-style slot machine, invented by Charles Fey in 1895, featured 3 individual reels with symbols like horseshoes and clovers. A jackpot was triggered when the player hit a Liberty Bell on each reel.

Fey’s machines were quite popular and were soon found in saloons across the San Francisco Bay Area. He originally split revenues with the bar owners, but after one of his machines was stolen, and similar machines hit the market, Fey switched to renting or selling his machines.

Slot manufacturers like Mills, Jennings, Pace, and Watling came and went over the next 60 years. During that time the machines were found in bars and roadhouses across the United States. Similar machines were also popular in Great Britain and Germany.

In the US, most states eventually outlawed open-gambling, but the slots were tolerated in many locations until the late 1930s when Nevada was the only remaining state with legalized gaming.

First Slot Machine In Las Vegas Beginner

Although machine styles and designs changed, the overall operation and mechanics of the slots did not.

A single cherry symbol usually paid 2 coins, while 2 cherry symbols paid 5 coins. An orange on all 3 reels usually paid 10 coins, while plums or bells paid as high as 18 coins. A jackpot was 150 coins, meaning a nickel machine paid a total jackpot of $7.50.

The machine automatically dropped 20 coins, and the remaining $6.50 was paid by an attendant.

The monster machines drew crowds, but Bally had an even more important change that revolutionized slots. Previous machines had used metal tubes and slides to make payoffs that ranged from 2 to 20 coins.

Bally’s new Money Honey machines changed all that, with sleek designed fronts that opened on a hinge and gave slot attendants the ability to fill an electro-mechanical hopper with coins.

The new process allowed players to hit larger payouts and be paid automatically as the hopper spun and dispensed jackpots, counting the payout as it went.

Just 15 years later, the gaming industry introduced computer-run machines to their customers. The new machines used computer motherboards and removable chips to change game parameters. The machines used now employ random number generators to ensure safety and fair payouts for huge jackpots that have reached more than $20 million.

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The machines most popular in the early days of Las Vegas had 3 reels and symbols like cherries, plums, oranges, and bells. A standard slot had 20 symbols per reel, so the odds of hitting the jackpot were 8000 to 1.

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Today, machines can have nearly unlimited combinations. In fact, the largest group jackpot is offered by IGT on their Megabucks machines.

Those machines have virtual reels with 368 possible stops. Each virtual reel has one jackpot symbol. 368 x 368 x 368 gives the player one chance in 49,836,032 spins to hit the jackpot. Yes, the odds are high, but so are the jackpots, often over $20 million.

Unfortunately, nearly every large group (or linked machine) jackpot has a payoff made over 25 years. What that means is that if the jackpot is $1 million, you get a check for $40,000 the day you hit the big one. Then, you get a check in the mail for the same amount annually for 24 years.