Back To The Past

The concept of slot machine can be traced back in 1891 when a company based in Brooklyn, New York, Sittman and Pitt, tried its luck in creating a gambling machine. The machine had five drums which contained 50 card faces, all of which came from poker. To say that the gambling machine was a hit is an understatement. Soon enough, a number of establishments in the area featured a couple or more of the machine in the sides of the bar.

Basically, interested participants had to insert a coin then pull the lever. The lever would then spin the drums along with the cards they held. After pulling the lever, players crossed their fingers hoping that the machine would give them what is considered a good hand in poker.

During those times, the pay out were not as specified like today. A good set of cards, let’s say a pair of kings, could win the player a beer in the house. Since a royal flush is better than two kings, the price might include beers and cigars. The management of the bar had the authority to call the shots as to what would be the reward for a particular winning hand.

Some say that Sittman and Pitt was not the first to develop a slot machine. The gaming equipment they launched was more like a poker machine. There are those people who insist that the Father of Slot Machines should be Charles Fey. It was in 1887 when Fey introduced another machine that is simpler than that of Sittman and Pitt’s. He created a machine that had three spinning reels and the goal of the game was for the player to end up with identical images. Compared to the five-drum machine, Fey’s invention gave way to a more effective payout mechanism. The payout depended on the images that the player was able to complete. The most famous winning combination was the three bells. Liberty Bell became so popular among the gaming crowd that it started a new era of gaming industry.

In the end, there had been a compromise regarding the roots of slot machines. Charles Fey is the father of slot machines, while Sittman and Pitt is the Grandfather.