Slot machines. One-armed bandits. Fruit machines. These gambling machines have a long and storied history and first appeared as far back as 1891. This was when Liberty Bell, a mechanical fruit machine-style slot and the grandfather of all slots first appeared in Brooklyn, New York. When the Great Depression hit, Nevada decided to legalize gambling. This move lead to a spike in the popularity of slots like Temple Slots , as it became a way for women to join their husbands in casinos while they played traditional games like poker and roulette.
Video Slots Take the Stage
The next key moment in the development of slots was the first ever video slot. Debuting in 1976 in the casino capital of the world, Las Vegas, the public were fascinated with these automated machines and their eye-catching colours. Video slots were an instant success and soon made their way from casinos and could be found in pubs and clubs around the world. The invention of video slots also saw the development of the graphical interface that we still use to this day in both video and online slots.
Slots Go Online
In 1996 the first slot made its way online to the internet when InterCasino became the first online casino. Starting out with a selection of just 18 games, few could have predicted that it would lead to a multibillion-dollar industry in just a few years.[adsense]
Suddenly players were free to gamble any time they wanted from the comfort of their homes. At first these casinos only offered classic casino games like blackjack and roulette. Before long online slots were introduced and, much like traditional on-site casinos, the game selection offered by online casinos were soon dominated by online slots.
At first, the online slots were exact replicas of the slots you would find at your nearest casinos, often with the same symbols and number of reels. But it wasn’t long before game developers realized the freedom that the digital nature of online slots offered. With time the slot icons started appearing with themes based on everything from ancient civilizations to our favourite superhero to the year’s biggest Hollywood blockbusters. Today the online casino continues to grow, with many of the biggest traditional casinos expanding their brand into online casinos.
In fact, it wasn’t long before online slots and online casinos soon overtook physical casinos and slots in every way – profits, payouts, and engagement.As technology advanced, the online gambling industry kept up. Just as computers evolved into laptops and then into smartphones, online casinos developed into smartphone apps, allowing us to play wherever and whenever we wanted.
In around 100 years the slot machine has evolved from a 3-reel fixed themed physical machine that we had to leave our homes to play into a smartphone app we carry in our pockets everywhere we go, giving us instant access to thousands of slots.
Where do we go from here?
So, what’s next? With 5G bringing internet speeds of 10 gigs per second and VR headsets becoming even more engaging and cheaper, perhaps the future lies in a blend of the past and the present. One day soon we will don our VR headsets and spend the night gambling in a digitally recreated version of Caesars or the Golden Nugget, indistinguishable from the real thing.
