The first mechanical slot machine was invented in the late 1800's by a Bavarian imiagrant named Charles Fey (1862-1944) in San Francisco. In order to understand the history of the slot machine though we need to jump back a little in time. Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Schultze's 'Horseshoe Slot Machine' of 1893 was the first machine to include an automatic payout mechanism. In 1895, Fey invented a modified version of the Horseshoe that paid out coins; this machine became incredibly popular. Fey opened a slot machine workshop in 1896 or 1897.

Most people assume that after Charles Fey created the first slot machine in the last decade of the 1800s, the development of these machines followed a natural course in the United States. In fact, what many don’t know is that the modern slot machine was invented in Australia. In the 1950s, it was a company Down Under that pushed to produce machines with innovative new designs. Aristocrat Leisure’s first poker machine, the Clubman, changed the face of modern slot machines with the introduction of brand new features.

Tracing the History of Pokies

Before we look at how Aristocrat Leisure contributed to modern day pokies, we need to head back around 130 years. In the late 19th century, somewhere between 1887 and 1895, a Bavarian immigrant to the United States invented the first slot machine.

Features of Charles Augustus Fey’s Liberty Bell:

• It allowed automatic payments
• The existing five drums were replaced with three
• Playing cards were replaced with five symbols – hearts, diamonds, spades, horseshoes and, naturally, the Liberty Bell

Slot Machines Come to Australian Shores

Australia started importing slot machines based on Fey’s model as early as the late 1890s. Although they were illegal in theory, they became an instant hit with players. For the next fifty or so years, Aussies couldn’t get enough of these US-supplied slot machines. The country soon became the world’s second largest slot machine market.

All this came to a head in 1951 when the US passed the Johnson Act of 1951. Suddenly, casino gambling was restricted to Nevada and the effect was felt immediately. Most of the major slot machine manufacturers saw their businesses collapse. The effects were felt in Australia where the supply of slot machines from the US had already experienced trouble keeping up with the demand. Less suppliers meant even less poker machines for Aussie players.

Ainsworth Steps in to Save the Day

In the early 50s, Leonard Ainsworth, realized that the company his father had started in Sydney could take an entirely new direction. Until then, Ainsworth Consolidated Industries was producing large-scale floor model-type equipment. It dawned on Ainsworth, however that some of the machinery in use could easily be converted into the production of poker machines.

With such a high demand for pokies, exacerbated by the passing of the new laws in the United States, Ainsworth stepped in to save the day.

Bringing Innovation to Modern Slots

Leonard Ainsworth could easily have continued building slot machines based on the classic Liberty Bell. However, he was not content to use existing designs. As such, the modern slot machine was born thanks to the innovation and creativity of the Australian company. In 1956, Ainsworth launched its first poker machine. Known as the Clubman, this machine brought with it many industry firsts, including multiline and scatter payouts. It was succeeded a little while later by the Clubmaster machine.

The Spread of the Modern Day Slot

Ainsworth’s timing couldn’t have been better. In 1956, with the launch of Clubman, New South Wales decided to legalize poker machines. Literally overnight, the Australian public lapped up Ainsworth’s new slot machines. The company grabbed a significant part of the NSW games market and then went on to supply most of Australia’s slot market.

Ainsworth went on to conquer the world market. In 1960, only four short years after its first slot machine went live, the company entered the European market.

Evolution of Slots Using Electronic Technology

In 1963, the words ‘Money Honey’ would change the world of pokies forever. This was the name of the first fully electronic slot machine brought out by Bally. Money Honey took the world by storm, bringing the first ever bottomless hopper to slot machines.

Ainsworth soon latched on to this idea, releasing their own electronic slot entitled ‘Moon Money’ in 1965. Tis was lapped up by the Aussie market and soon, Ainsworth began churning out electronic machines like clockwork.

Enter Video Slots

Another game changer in this line was the first ever video pokie to be created; Fortune Coin. Created by Fortune Coin co. this video slot was released in 1976. However, it wasn’t until 1980 that the first video slots made their ways to the shores of Australia. Keeping up with the times, Ainsworth again proved its excellence in innovation with the release of its DACOM 5000 system in 1982. This system allowed electronic accounting and player tracking.

Innovations After 1990

Even in recent years, the Australian company has continued to bring new and innovative features to the slots market. In 1996, after going public on the Australian stock exchange, it officially changed its name to Aristocrat Leisure Ltd.

Aristocrat innovations in the 90s include:

• 1995 – the launch of the MK gaming system.
• 1997 – the launch of the Hyperlink gaming system (which helped make the company the second most successful slot producer in the world.

The Top Three Land Based Pokies In Australia

Throughout the years, Aussies have developed a taste for various pokie machines. We will take a look at the top three choices for you and what spoils each holds:

• King Of The Nile

  The King Of The Nile pokie was released by Australian gaming legend, Aristocrat Gaming. This pokie offers you 5 reels and 20 paylines. There are a total of 8 bonus features to enjoy in this riveting game, including wilds and free spins.

  The minimum bet is $0.02 per line. The maximum wager you can make is 120 credits per line. Furthermore, this game is only available through the Aristocrat Xcite slot machine range. As the name suggests, the theme of this pokie is featured around ancient Egypt.

• More Chilli

  The More Chilli pokie is also produced by Aristocrat Gaming. This game brings you the opportunity to win up to $4000 in its bonus round, and can be played both online and in land based casinos.

  The minimum wager amount is $2,00 with the max being $65. The game is centred around the rich and vibrant Mexican culture. This is not a progressive jackpot game.

• Rainbow Riches

  Rainbow Riches is a leprechaun themed pokie with the luck of the Irish in tow! You will be able to enjoy 5 reels, 10 paylines and a total of 18 winning combinations. The maximum winnings you can land per line is 25, 000.

  This incredible game can be found in most Aussie casinos and comes to you from creators, Barcrest. Be sure to try it out for yourself and who knows? You could finally land that pot of gold you’ve been hoping to for so long!

  for you.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that some of the biggest changes seen in the slot machine market originated from Australia, with Ainsworth (now Aristocrat) playing a huge part in it all. The tendency is to believe that the modern day slot machine resulted from simple changes made to Charles Fey’s original invention. The truth is that innovation and Ainsworth’s desire for new slot machine designs led to the birth of the modern day slot machine.

Introduction

The first mechanical slot machine was invented in the late 1800's by a Bavarian imiagrant named Charles Fey (1862-1944) in San Francisco. In order to understand the history of the slot machine though we need to jump back a little in time.

Poker Machines

Before Fey’s invention there were other coin-operated games of chance. The most popular one, invented by Sittman and Pitt of New York, was a 'poker machine' that was similar to a slot machine and used 5 reels with 10 poker cards on each reel. These machines were very profitable and were used in hundreds of locations (mainly in cigar stands) in the 90's (the 1890's that is). The machines paid out prizes, like a free cigar or free drinks, which were distributed manually by an attendant.

Charles Fey

When Charles began building machines, he initially built ones that were similar the popular poker machines and called them by various names, like the 'Duke' and the 'Klondike'. After building a few of them, placing them in locations, and doing very well with them, he then opened a factory in San Francisco to work on his machines full-time.

But Fey wanted to build a machine that would pay out automatically. This wasn't possible at the time due to the difficulty of calculating the vast number of winning combinations of a machine with 5 reels and 10 cards on each reel. So, in 1898, Fey designed a poker machine called the 'Card Bell' machine that retained the card symbols of the earlier poker machines but had only 3 spinning reels and only 5 symbols printed on each reel. The automatic prize-payout allowed the machine to be the first to pay out coins.

The 'Liberty Bell'

About a year later, in 1899, he created the 'Liberty Bell' machine, which added horseshoes and bells to the suit symbols on the reels. Lining up three bells would win the top prize (hence the name). Fey's design became the standard design for slot machines going forward and was so popular that all 3-reel slot machines were referred to as 'Bell Machines'.

Fey rented his machines to saloons and bars and split the profits 50/50. The demand for Liberty Bell slot machines was huge and allowed Fey to monopolize the slot machine market. Many gambling supply manufacturers wanted to buy the manufacturing and distribution rights to the Liberty Bell but Charles Fey didn't want to sell them.

But Fey could not keep up with the demand so in 1907 he partnered with Mills Novelty Company to manufacture a cast-iron machine called the 'Mills Liberty Bell'.

Unfortunately for Fey, patent laws of the time did not protect gaming devices because a Federal Judge ruled the slots could only be used for gambling and had no useful purpose. So a few years later, in 1910, the Mills Novelty Company introduced a slight variation to the Mills Liberty Bell called the 'Operator Bell'. The machines from Mills Novelty were the first to use the fruit symbols like lemons and cherries that you see on some slot machines today.

1910-1933

Part of the growth of slot machines was due the wide open nature of San Francisco during the early 1900's. The climate started to change quickly though in 1909 when San Francisco outlawed all gaming machines. Nevada did the same a year later and the state of California created a statewide ban on slot machines in 1911.

These laws did not have much of an effect on slot machine sales because slot machine manufacturers were able to find ways to alter the games to avoid getting them classified as gambling devices.

When Was Machine Guns Invented

For example, the 'Liberty Bell Gum Fruit' model dispensed a package of gum, which allowed the machine to be classified as a vending machine. The Caille Brothers slots created machines that had a Swiss music box located in the bottom of the cabinet so the machine was classified as a musical device. Another popular strategy was to have slot machines dispense items like mints or gum in order to have them classified as vending machines.

Slot machines reached their peak sales during the Great Depression and the lawless days of prohibition, which began in 1919. They were popular in the speakeasies as well as the many respectable businesses that needed the profitable machines in order to stay in business during the tough economic times.

1933-1945

After prohibition ended the government decided to target slot machines since they were looked at as tools for organized crime. Raids began to increase as well as laws prohibiting the possession of slot machines or a sale of a slot machine to an illegal state. Despite these efforts, the popularity of slots machines was difficult to stop and slots were still able to operate in some places.

Post WWII

After World War II, governments started to become friendly to the slot machine industry because it now looked at it as a source of tax revenue.

Computer Technology

In 1963, Bally developed the first electromechanical slot machine, called Money Honey, that used electronic micro-processors to decide the outcome of the game.

The first fully-electronic slot machines were introduced in Las Vegas in 1975. They were built by the Fortune Coin Company and used simulated reels on a monitor. The electronic machines caught on slower than expected because many players did not trust the fairness of the machines. In 1978, the company that would later be known as International Game Technology bought out the Fortune Coin Company.

In 1984, a Norwegian scientist named Inge Telnaes received a patent for a device titled, 'Electronic Gaming Device Utilizing a Random Number Generator for Selecting the Reel Stop Positions.' International Gaming Technology (IGT) bought the patent in 1988 and now all slot manufacturers his technology must license the patent from IGT.

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