The History of Slot Machines

Slots has come a long way since the first few models were built in the late 1800’s, starting in earnest with the Horse Shoe and Liberty Bell slots. Nowadays, there are hundreds if not thousands of varieties of slots available both on and offline. The games of old were relatively simple with a mechanical component that made them fairly easy to cheat- it was around the 1930’s that players at large began to realise that slot machines contained an exploitable feature to let them stop the slots on what they needed to give them an advantage. This wasn’t really rectified until the 1970’s when the operators switched to a digital solution with a computer inside to randomise when the slots would pay out. This meant the machines were far more tamper-proof and that pay-outs could be more generous (which, in turn, attracted more players with these better odds on offer). As the slot machine was now largely digital, the transition to online play was fairly simple. All you needed was the RNG and the animations displayed on the screen which would be easy enough to send to your computer/phone/device and you were away! Slots is still evolving even now with new games boasting great features coming out all the time, but it’s worth remembering where it all came from.