When Were the First Pokies Develop?
In its time the slot machines have quickly won recognition in the gaming centers and casinos around the world, because, unlike the same table games in the slot machine player himself sets the pace of the game, the players do not require any special skills, but it all depends solely on luck and Fortune.
It is interesting that originally the American term “slot machine” was used to refer to both trading and slot machines.Pokies have the same slots with vending machines. But later the term “slot machine” was reserved for those machines which did not provide goods in exchange for coins, only an opportunity to play a game. But progress has not stopped there. Now you do not need any coins and slot machines – to play for free if you want all day long, available to all of us on the Internet.
History of slot machines dates at all since 1884-88. When an American of German origin Charles Fay (1862-1944) created his first slot machine in his workshop, which worked on 5-cent coins. The first slot machine’s maximum winnings were ten 5-cent coins – a half-dollar total.
Evolution of Slots
The history of slot machines is very rich. The first pokies had little in common with slots, which can now be found in gambling establishments. The main idea of the game has not changed – to win the player must collect on the paylines of the winning combination of symbols.
Poker slots machines
In 1891, this machine was created. They were based on the game of poker. This machine had five reels and 50 playing cards. The inventor of the poker slot machines is Sittman and Pitt . In a short time their new invention became popular in the United States, and all the bars in New York installed slot machines in order to increase the number of visitors. To start the game, a man put a coin in the machine, then pulled the handle and carefully watched the rotation of spins. Slot machines at that time did not have a direct payout system. If a player won, he approached the barman and took a beer mug or a cigarette as his prize.Early slot machines gave payouts to players not very high, because the owners of the institutions with slot machines often took two cards in the ten-ace range. Usually these cards were the ten of spades and the jack of hearts.
One-armed bandits
This slot machine was invented by Charles Fey, a native San Francisco mechanic. The man is widely considered to be the “Father of Slots” and is a man who has put a lot of time and effort into popularizing slots around the world. If you read the historical data, the first slot machine Fey invented in 1894. His second invention he created in 1895 called 4-11-44.Slot machines contained three rotating drums and a handle, and therefore got their name “one-armed bandits. In the short slot they became very popular, this is the reason that Fey decided to spend his life in the development and improvement of pokies. Thanks to him today we have the opportunity to play such famous pokies like Resident, and many others.
Liberty Bell
This was the first slot machine that had an automatic payment system. Its creator is Charles Fey. He created it in 1898. The appart had three rotating reels. Fey model served as an example for all modern slot machines. In the slot machine you could see five symbols: horseshoes, Liberty Bell, diamonds, hearts and spades. The name “Liberty Bell” comes from the same name symbol slot machine. If the rotation of the player rolled three Liberty Bells, then he got the biggest payout jackpot. He made up 10 five-cent coins.
The three-reel Liberty Bell model has been copied by many manufacturers in the United States. For example, in 1907, Gerber Mills invented a similar slot machine called “Operator Bell”. And already in 1908, these machines were installed in various bars, cigarette shops, bowling alleys, lounges and brothels.
Fruit Machines
This was the next stage in the history of slots. This slot machine was created in 1912 after a merger with the Bell Fruit Gum company. All card symbols replaced with images of different fruits: cherries, watermelons, oranges, apples. Modern slot machines Fruit Cocktail is an updated prototype of this machine.
Then was introduced an additional symbol Bar.It was the old logo of the company. Initially, the payouts on these machines were gum with fruit taste. So they did it not only for fun, but also to avoid anti gambling laws, which were introduced in many states, as in those days, pokies were considered more a trade creation than a gambling machine. And so the cash payouts were banned.
In 1920, it was not a good time for slot machines. As the Senate issued an executive order banning the sale of alcoholic drinks. The popularity of slots fell as most of the machines were placed in bars.But even the closure of all beer places did not stop the propagation of gaming machines.
Electromechanical slots
The “golden age of slots” is considered to be the period of 1919-1930. Then pokies became popular in all the states of America. They managed to survive unchanged, despite numerous bans and a long struggle with the machines. In 1964, the first electromechanical slot machine was created. It was called Money Honey. Since its creators have completely upgraded the machine, it could already automatically pay out prizes and accept up to 500 coins without any help. The invention of electromechanical pokies was the beginning of the era of electronic slot machines. After a time, the handle on automatic machines began to be used only as a decoration. 1996 was the year of creation of the famous American company Slots with progressive jackpots
IGT brought another landmark invention to the world of slots. In 1986 they introduced the Megabucks, the world’s first pokies with a progressive jackpot. These machines did not have fixed jackpots, but were common to the entire network, and they could grow indefinitely.
The machines in the U.S. were connected through telephone lines, and the prize pool started at $1 million. Eventually, the first progressive jackpot was won in Reno, Nevada, and totaled nearly $5 million.
The Age of Online Slots
Back in the late 90’s, as online casinos began to take hold, slots became more and more popular. Classical three-reel pokies with simple graphics and gameplay were replaced by games with well-developed games themes, bonus rounds and slot fields with multiple reels and winning lines.
Today, slots use many innovative mechanics, such as Megaways, with which the number of lines can exceed a million, global progressive jackpots in the millions of dollars, as in the Mega Moolah series from Microgaming, and others. This was hard to imagine at the conception stage of online gambling, but now gamblers have thousands of slots with detailed plots and multi-level features at their disposal – and you can run them not only on your computer, but also on mobile devices.
Online Slots in Australia
Many Australian players love to play online pokies. Online Casino AU performs a lot of research on various topics in order to provide the most relevant and reliable information about pokies for players.
A very popular question about how to start playing pokies for real money. Here everything is simple. You need to use different strategies and try different approaches in order to really win.
Some tips to help you play and win at pokies:
- At https://online-casinoau.com/pokies/ find an overview about all the slot machines available in Australia;
- Study all the information thoroughly;
- Always use the demo version of the game before you start. With its help you will understand the rules of the game and you will be able to think through the strategy without spending real money;
- Decide on your limit budget and stay within it;
- Learn how all the symbols and functions work in an online slot;
- Find out if the online casino supports the payment system you need.
Now you can be called a true expert in the history of pokis. If you’ve never played, register at your favorite online casino in the Online Casino AU review and start having a great time!
