The history of the slot or fruit machine as we know it today starts at the end of the 19th century. It is a time of inventions and discoveries. In Germany in particular, many medical discoveries and technical inventions are made. Due to the unrest in, at that time, Prussia, especially medical insights were ignored for a long time.
Fleeing the economic downturn in their country, many Germans emigrate to the United States. There, soon after, an explosion of technical inventions occurs. Numerous patents were applied for between 1880 and 1900 for machines, machine parts and operating systems.
There are already slot machines at that time. They're at cigar shops and cafes. They do not pay out or at most the player receives a cigar, voucher or coin when winning. And when playing, someone must always be present for the operation and payout. Several inventors are therefore trying to solve the problem of necessary personnel in particular. Two of them are interesting to mention here.
In 1891, Mortimer B. Mills patented a system to operate a coin-operated vending machine. Two years later Gustav F. W. Schultze invented his coin-operated machine, the Horseshoe. Gradually, in the short successive patents of Schultze, we see the beginning of the modern slot machine.
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Schultze describes it in his patents roughly as follows: "my invention is a device in which a disk rotates by the insertion of a coin" and " the purpose of my invention is to provide an interesting machine, in which, if a predetermined result is achieved, the inserted coin is returned to the user.’
The characters on the disc can be anything, Schultze adds. He himself gives in his patent the example of fortune-teller Grumentenmaker Charles A. Fey.
Gambling is as old as humanity. It is therefore not a crazy thought of Fey. He takes a device from Schultze as a basis and makes his first slot machine with it in 1894. Fey is not the inventor of the slot machine, but the creator of an application.
Fey works at California Electric Works in San Francisco. There he gets to know Theodore Holtz, who has been a company manager there for ten years and, like himself, a German zodiac..
A year later, Fey builds a second machine in his basement, also based on Schultze's Horseshoe. He calls it the 4-11-44, after popular numbers from the illegal lottery world. The device consists of three numbered dials. With 4-11-44 in a row, you get the highest payout.
Fey has also become acquainted with Gustav Schultze. In 1895, Fey, Schultze and Theodore Holtz moved in together in Bekeley. They exchange knowledge and experience. Schultze already has several patents and slot machines to his name.
At that time, cabinets like those of Schultze and Fey were still called nickel-in-a-slot machine. The word indicates that a slot is a slot for throwing something in. It may be a piece of money, but it was often still a special coin back then. Later the description of the device is simplified to slot machine. It is not necessarily a slot machine. A cigarette or gumball machine is also a slot machine.
Schultz suggests Fey and Holtz quit their jobs and start their own business. They do it the same year. The company Holtz & Fey makes, among other things, parts for Schultze's slot machines.
As they start their business, the 4-11-44 also becomes successful. It is in several bars. Fey decides to continue designing slot machines a year after the start of the company. He sells his shares to Holtz, with whom he will remain good friends throughout his life, and starts Charles Fey & Company.
In 1897, Fey moves his business from his basement to a building in downtown San Francisco. Mills Novelty Company of Chicago is located in the same neighborhood and his competitor and former friend Schultze is also a close neighbor. Schultze begins a lawsuit against Holtz and others that year, probably including Fey.
Schultze believes that his patent rights have been violated. Holtz explains in court that their machine can only be used in bars, cafes and other, similar occasions. On August 23, 1897, Judge William W. Morrow ruled that a slot machine is indeed a gambling device. He is wrong about Schultze. Morrow does not consider his slot machine a new and useful invention and such a device can therefore not be patented.
In his new workshop, Fey mainly works on slot machines based on the draw poker game. He wants to provide them with an automatic payout system. The Card Bell succeeds in doing so, a year after his move. It is a machine with three rollers, which start turning with the pulling of a lever. The rollers come to a standstill sequentially. That is new and provides the game with extra excitement. He is also working on a five-reel machine to get closer to the game of poker. But mechanically, this is too big a task.
However, Fey does not just tinker with the Card Bell. He is also considering the consequences of Schultze's lawsuit. In addition, in California, since 1872, an anti-gambling law is in force.
Every gambling game
is prohibited, except for the poker variant ‘draw poker'. With the advent of the slot machine and other casino games, that law was amended in 1891 to ban every conceivable game of chance, except poker.
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The lawsuit convinces him that patenting makes no sense. Fay find it more meaningful to think about marketing and the game. In 1898 he replaced the poker cards of the Card Bell with images of the three card symbols hearts, clover and diamonds. He adds a horseshoe and a Liberty Bell, the bell that symbolizes freedom in America.
Each roll is given ten images. With that, the slot has 1000 combinations, including three Liberty Bells in a row, the combination of maximum payout. The Liberty Bell will pay out automatically. The Liberty Bell is made in such a way that 86% of the coins deposited can be won by the players.
With his Liberty Bell, Fey has to fight against more than 1500 poker rooms in San Francisco. Those are on the counters of all cigar shops and all bars of cafes in the city. He also has no patent protection. Partly because of this, the Liberty Bell decides not to sell or rent slot machines, but to keep them in ownership.
He places the Liberty Bell in cafes and takes care of its maintenance. He shares the proceeds of the cabinet with the owner, about 14% of the money raised, on the basis of a 50-50 arrangement. It turns out a unique and successful marketing model. Fey soon has to expand his business. He hires more employees, who check the cabinets placed daily, and he opens a branch in San Jose. The Liberty Bell is gradually spreading throughout the San Francisco wiki across the San Francisco Bay Area . It is the beginning of the rise of the modern slot machine as we know it today.
Charles Fey keeps coming up with new slot machines or modifications to them. However, he is mainly engaged in maintenance of the cabinets he has placed in the Bay Area. Gradually, as a result, he gets into trouble, after all, he did not have a patent. His competition imitates his cabinets or builds their own variants. From the beginning of 1900, Fey loses his position as market leader.
In 1891, Mortimer B. Mills founded a company in Chicago. Mills has several patents to his name. The company is mainly concerned with slot machines; devices where you deposit money for a certain service. In the beginning, Mills mainly makes cigar and candy vending machines. In 1898, his son Herbert Stephen Mills took over the company. He renamed it Mills Novelty Company. Herbert then has two employees. In 1902, there are five, including Ode D. Jennings. Herbert will also make other vending machines and music devices. After a number of relocations due to the expansion, the workforce is growing rapidly.
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Several times Herbert Mills tries to work with Fey. If that fails, and he can't get hold of a Liberty Bell either, he hires Mat Larkin. Larkin is the former foreman of Fey. In 1905, a bar in San Francisco was broken into. All that is brought is an apron and a Liberty Bell slot machine. Some in the small world of slot machine manufacturers suspect Larkin and Mills. There's no evidence. But a short time later there is a Liberty Bell in the workshop of Herbert Mills in Chicago.
In early 1906, Mills Novelty Company came up with its own version of the Liberty Bell. The original slot machine has hardly changed, but has a historical adaptation. The poker cards and other symbols have been replaced by images of fruit. The fruit machine was born. In the same year, San Francisco was rocked by an earthquake. Fey's workshops, other manufacturers and the offices in the entire financial district are destroyed. Fey is still working with Mills. Together they develop a new slot machine, the Operator Bell. The Cabinet comes on the market in 1910. Fey is already working on other products for other manufacturers. The collaboration with Mills will soon stop after that.
Mills ' strength is its distribution network. The company has built an extensive sales team since its inception. As a result, it can bring the slot machines further than the San Francisco Bay. In a few years, Herbert Mills spread the slot machine with fruit symbols all over America. Around 1930, there were hundreds of thousands of slot machines in America. Most of it comes from Mills Novelty Company. Between 1920 and 1940, the company made over 300,000. In the beginning, the slot machines are mainly table models. They are on a bar or counter. Herbert Mills is developing a model that can stand on its own. However, there is little animo for this cabinet. One prefers the table model. Even casinos did not switch to the standing slot machine until the Sixties. But still, many casinos simply place the table model on a mobile cabinet.
Herbert Mill also has a good eye for the psychology of the game. For example, he enlarges the window with the three disks. This will allow the player to see not only the three symbols of the final result, but also part of the symbols below and above. This increases the tension for the player.
In addition, many gamblers, upon seeing an underlying favorable symbol, think that their next bNZDt will bring profit. This so-called gambler misconception, thinking that a device has a memory, occurs in more gambling games. Mills also increases the number of symbols on a disc from ten to twenty. As a result, instead of 1000, as many as 8000 combinations are possible. And in 1925, The Mills Company introduced the jackpot in slot machines. Herbert Mills died in 1927; his four sons took over the company.
Gambling legislation has been a problem since the 19th century .
and in New Zealand
). It is a cat-and-mouse game between manufacturers, casino owners, gamblers and Justice. The slot machines are usually illegal, but are used everywhere. The general public does not find the cabinets a problem and justice often has more important business to do. In periods of law enforcement, bribery or hiding works. In the latter case, for example, the slot machine temporarily disappears behind a curtain. Either the slot machine is combined with a vending machine; instead of payout, there is then seemingly a payment in nature, or the ‘gambling component’ is not immediately visible, camouflaged by bars of chocolate or packs of chewing gum.
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Since the 1930s, government pressure has been increasing. States are jointly fighting the slot machines. As a result, most states prohibit the slot machine. Finally, in 1951, the government passes the Gaming Devices Act (Act); slot machines are no longer allowed to be transported across state lines. Virtually all states impose a ban on gambling. Only in Nevada, where there are more than 30,000 slot machines, gambling remains legal. Mills Novelty Company moves to Reno, Nevada. Also, Herbert Mills is intensifying exports to dollarpa and other countries where slot machines are allowed.
Obviously, Mills Company is leading under the continuous judicial fickleness. But it also shows the need to continue to innovate. Mills doesn't just do that in slot machines. They come up with all kinds of candy and music devices. In 1935, they developed the first vending machine with chilled lemonade bottles for Coca Cola. Ten years later, a grandson of Mortimer helps develop the first vending machine for selling hot coffee. And for years they have been working on innovations around refrigeration machines that allow a cafeteria to make ice cream itself.
By this time, the Mills family had already spread over several companies, often retaining the family name. Sometimes such a new Mills enterprise arises in order to better distinguish between product types. Another time because a descendant of Mortimer wants to go in a certain direction. The name Mills Novelty Company changes to Mills Industries in the war years of WWII. In 1946, the slot machines, not just the fruit machines, are housed in a separate company: The Bell-O-Matic Corporation.
In 1906, Ode D. Jennings, an employee of Mills, starts his own business. He is going to be engaged in the repair of faulty slot machines from Herbert Mills. The company is growing with Mills Novelty Company. In 1911 Jennings came up with his own slot machine. Later, more slot machines and patents follow, among other things, a coin detection system. However, Mills was the undisputed leader in the slot machine world until 1950. In 1953, Ode Jennings dies, shortly before the company passes the inheritances of his old employer in size. Together, the two companies still hold more than 70% of the slot machines market at that time.
However, both companies have been doing less well for a while. Jennings ' company has previously been merged into the Hershey Manufacturing Company, and Bell-O-Matic Company is sold to the American Machine and Science Company. In the end, unfortunately, it may no longer be of use. There is a new leader in the slot machine market, Bally (
now also makes online slots
).
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In 1931, shortly after the beginning of the American economic crisis, Raymond T. Moloney comes up with a pinball machine. The Ballyhoo, named after a popular magazine at the time, is one of the first pinball machines of the modern type: a glass plate shields the playing field and the Cabinet has a coin system. For a penny you get 7 balls, for a dime 10. In addition, the playing field is larger and has 10 holes, which increases the challenge of the game. Playing for a little money on a slot or pinball machine or is for many the only relaxation in the crisis in the 30s .
On January 10, 1932, he founded the Bally Manufacturing Company. It becomes the production company of The Lion Manufacturing Corporation in Chicago. Moloney's pinball machine is an instant success. Bally sells over 50,000 in just a few months. With pinball, however, you cannot win money as a player. It's a skill game, where you can earn extra, free plays. At most, you win extra games. There are gambling halls that pay out when a player won many extra games. But the risks are great, because the legislation is strict.
The legislation is one of the reasons that Moloney, despite the huge success of his pinball machines, starts with real slot machines. In 1936 he entered the world with the Bally Baby, which is still dominated by The Mills Company. The Bally Baby is the smallest slot machine at that time. The successful reception of the device convinces Moloney to definitely include slot machines in Bally's offer.
In those years, many game manufacturers experimented with electronics. In pinball machines, some electronics are already processed. During the Second World War, many manufacturers of slot machines are in the war industry. Developments in the field of slot machines are a bit stagnant.
Shortly after the war, in 1947, Moloney brings the 'Hi Boy' to the market. This slot machine is upright and has a new kind of electromechanical method. It will be a successful product that Bally can build on for a long time. Unfortunately, it is not yet the slot that allows the company to push Mills out of the leadership position.
As always, the psychological aspects of the game are also considered. After all, the use of electronics opens up new opportunities. One idea is to replace the lever with a button. Pulling a lever takes physical strength, and it is not necessary to spin the wheels. However, it is still too early for the button. Players find the button too impersonal. The slot machine looks too much like a jukebox without a lever, according to them. And many players mistakenly think that the way they pull a lever affects the game. That psychological effect disappears with the push of a button.
One of the reasons Bally can't take over the leadership position from Mills is that the company stays in Chicago for too long. The law prohibits vending machines from being transported across state borders. All manufacturers have moved to Nevada, where gambling is allowed. But Moloney doesn't want to fire his 500 employees or have them move to Reno, for example. He is going to focus more on pinball machines and other gaming devices, such as bowling machines and playground children's toys. The slot machine comes on the second plan.
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In 1958, Raymond Moloney died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 58. His sons, who were not allowed into the case from him, take over the leadership. In november 1963, they introduced the Money Honey slot machine. The slot machine, in addition to using the most reliable electronics at the time, has a motor payment system. With it, automatic payouts can be made, without the intervention of employees, up to a maximum of 500 coins.
The name Money Honey of the slot is unintentionally ironic. The brothers manage to get an exemption; they are allowed to transport their products across the state borders to Nevada. But the costs and taxes that have to be paid for it put the company in financial trouble.
In 1964, Bally Manufacturing was acquired by a group of investors. The Money Honey is already making a successful advance. The company is gradually gaining the leading position in the world of slot machines. On August 12, 1975, it went to the bNZDs as the first manufacturer of slot and gaming machines.
One year after the bNZDsgang, Bally demonstrates the Slot Data Systems. It ushers in a new era in slot machines. From that moment on, there is electronic management of slot machines. These are also electronically secured and all kinds of administrative data can be read and analyzed. Bally'S SDS management system will be further developed over time. It has become more or less a standard system in the gambling and gaming industry today, which is also usable on slot machines from other manufacturers.
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In the late 1970s, the activities of the original Bally Manufacturing Company became unclear. Some companies have been and will continue to be acquired. Some of them are included in the organization, from others only the name is adjusted.
Bally is still engaged in slot machines, making it the favorite supplier of numerous casinos . But the company also makes other games and video games for arcades. And it focuses on computer games for the living room.
It even becomes the owner of some well-known casinos. such as, for example, the MGM Grand's in Las Vegas, which is temporarily renamed Bally's, and Reno. Bally even owns Six Flags amusement parks for a while. However, the expansion drive puts the company in financial trouble. In an attempt to save the business, everything related to pinball machines is sold to Williams Electronics in 1988.
In the meantime, Bally has taken another innovative step. The electronic slot machines are further equipped with computers and video. The first video slot machine was built in 1975 by Walt Fraley. Only after the company Sircoma releases a video poker slot machine in the early eighties does the rise begin.
Bally, by far the largest supplier of fruit machines, is taking care of further expansion and popularization. Again, there is resistance from the players. They can no longer see the discs spinning, as in the old slot machines. Nevertheless, the video cabinets are quickly becoming as popular as their predecessors.
With the video slots, more themes become available and the three original discs are gradually expanded to sometimes already five. But more important are the other innovations, think for example of the extensive progressive jackpot in which several cabinets participate.
In its simplest form, the progressive jackpot already, raising the total prize money every time the jackpot on a slot machine does not fall. With the renewed progressive jackpot, several slot machines are connected. These cabinets can be in the same room, but they don't have to. Already shortly after its introduction in 1986, cabinets, which are located in different locations, are connected via telephone lines. The total prize money to be won thus grows to unprecedented levels.
Another innovation in that period is, for example, the possibility of paying with paper money. Instead of per bNZDt, it can therefore be used for several bnzdts at once. And the player no longer has to lug around with a bag of coins.
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In 1990, a rigorous reorganization of activities begins. It eventually leads to the formation of two companies Bally Gaming International and Bally Entertainment. On June 18, 1996, Bally Gaming International was acquired by Alliance Gaming Corporation.
More acquisitions, name changes and small reorganisations follow. But calm has returned to the production of slot machines. And the dream of Ray Moloney, Bally as a producer of the best slot machines in the world, has come true.
Bally still exists, is currently owned by Scientific Games and, among other things, supplies almost 80% of the slot machines in Las Vegas and is a major player in the production of online games .
The company, like many other manufacturers, is now taking the next big step in the development of slot machines: from a game of chance to a game of skill.
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Did you find this an interesting article? Read about how probability calculation began , or view other history articles on, among other things, the emergence of the word " gambling’ , how the casino game blackjack or read more about the history of playing cards.
In addition, we have two articles on the
history of Las Vegas
discover how the city developed from Indian territory to the gambling capital of the world. Also interesting:
London gambling houses around 1800
.
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