Slot Machines
October 4th, 2008Slots: One Armed Bandit
The first slots machines to be given the name one-armed bandit were invented by Charles Fey of San Francisco, California, in 1887. It was Fey who came up with a much simpler automatic mechanism. Because there was a huge number of wins possible with the original poker card based slots game, it was becoming apparent that it was going to be almost impossible to devise a way by which these slots machines could make an automatic pay-out for all of the possible winning combinations. Fey then came up with a machine that contained three spinning reels which held a total of five symbols: horseshoes, diamonds, spades, hearts and a Liberty Bell.
It was this last symbol–the Liberty Bell– that gave this version of the slots machine its name. By using the five symbols in place of the ten cards and using three reels instead of the five drums, the difficulty in reading a win was greatly reduced. This allowed Fey to come up with an effective automatic payout mechanism. The biggest payoff–which was ten nickels–was produced by coming up with three bells in a row. Liberty Bell proved to be a great success and paved the way for the later slots machine industry.
