Slots and pokies are some of the oldest gambling games within the modern world. They saw their beginnings at the start of the twentieth century, and also have attracted a vast audience since. Here is an overview of slot machine history and the way they have developed in recent times.
The very first ever version of the slot machine was seen in 1891. Pittman and Sachs created a machine with five drums, each showing poker hand symbols. When players would win at these games, the machine may not pay out; rather, the bar housing them would provide players with drinks.
It might be four more years before Charles Fey would create the version of the slot machine with which we are most acquainted today. The equipment provided players with cash payouts when it revealed matching symbols. The recognition of these games caught on very quickly, until anti-gambling groups enacted a ban on slot machines in the early 20th century.
The ban only lasted a number of years, and it wasn't long before slots became popular again in casinos. It was throughout the 1950s that slot machines started to become popular across the globe. In 1953, Australian gaming company Aristocrat took note of the new trend and decided to manufacture its own brand of electronic gaming machines called pokies. The company's first machine was called the 'Clubman'.
Though it would be quite a while before we would see online slots, casinos in Las Vegas started making electronic slot machines, moving away from the normal, mechanical slot games that had become popular over the years. These machines were safer than mechanical slots and made it more difficult for individuals to cheat casinos. During this time, electronic slots also saw the invention of the random number generator which made playing slots much more unpredictable.
Over the next few decades, slots would remain the same. It wouldn't be until the turn of the Century that we begin seeing the creation of online slots. The very first online slots games were seen around 2001, in the event the first internet casinos went live. Companies like Microgaming got on the ground floor, creating some of the first online slot machines available to the general public.
For the past a decade, slots have become some of the most common games at online casinos, together with making up over 80% of land-based casino revenue. In the online world, players can find hundreds of distinct
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