History Of Online Slots: Milestones That Affected The Industry

As you can expect with any kind of industry or business, there are always going to be milestones that affected the industry at some time or another. This is because business is always ever changing and that the one thing you can rely on in business is that.

From the first ever slot machines to the way we play slot games online now, there have obviously been many milestones in the history of online slots that has helped the industry along the way get to the place it is in this day and age. 

The first slot machines 

It might not be the most common of knowledge, but slot machines first came about thanks to the invention of Sittman and Pitt in 1891, which was a milestone that affected the industry and changed it forever because that it when it all started to begin with. 

The first slot machine was created with drums of five which would rotate whilst holding playing cards, and the player who won the game would win the game by having the best poker hand completed with the five playing card options. This slot machine was in fact the first game of its kind available to play out there in the time it was invented, and as such the traction and demand for the game developed quickly, and big time. 

But the history of online slots and the milestones that affected the industry are not all as plain sailing as this unfortunately. Because of the tough nature of the game itself, for example fifty card combinations meaning thousands of combinations altogether, this meant there were too many ways to win which gave less opportunity to do so and resulted in less pay outs. 

The invention of todays slot machines 

We can thank a man named Charles Fey for the slot machines that we have today, which he invented at around 1895, as he thought the previous design of the slot machine to be too complex, and so simplified them by reducing the drums to just three with five symbols of possibility, which gave less combinations and more payouts. He introduced the bell symbol, which back then was known as the liberty bell. 

Then, milestone three strikes and the slot machine game is taken to the mainstream by a Mr Herbert Mills, who was allegedly a salesman who decided to trade all of them around the US in a number of different establishments such as bars, casino type houses, and this went all the way on to other establishments from brothels to barbers before the slot machine made its way to the UK. 

Before this happened though, a huge milestone in the history of slots was about to strike, and it did. Certain laws begun being passed in particular states that outlawed and prohibited gaming, and thus also placing limits on betting and gambling. 

The slot machines would instead make their pay outs by bubble gum which was fruit flavoured as their prize instead of money or another kind of monetary prize and this is why now we have the cherry and melon symbols found on the classic kind of reels, and this was to get around the laws and enable gamers to play legally. The bar symbol came a bit later on, and it began after one of the major slot machine manufacturers of the 1950s - the bar symbol being an adaptation of the Bell-Fruit Corp logo. 

The biggest milestone of them all? Online slot machines today 

In the day and age that we live in now, everything is digital and any one can get any thing at any time with something as tiny as the click of a button and a tap of the finger, as long as there is an internet connection which, usually there always is. 

In more recent times, and in the same way that the latest car overtakes an ‘old’ car make, we now have online gaming that has taken over from the traditional way that slot machines were played, which has proven to be a huge milestone for the gaming industry indeed, literally changing the way we play overnight. 

How online slot machine gaming took over from UK slot machines is not hard to see. In advertising, a famous phrase that was coined a long time ago and made famous is that ‘people pay for convenience’, and it would be fair to say that this is a true fact now.  

What could possibly be more convenient when you want to play a game on the slots than logging in, or not if you have chosen to go for the option to have your details be autosaved, and there you have it - your favourite game has then popped up instantly at your fingertips? 

Online slot game today have opened up a whole new product in the gaming industry and introduced us to a world of gaming convenience that we could not even imagine was possible 15 years ago. Not only that, but more and more games developers are opening up, with new games options and innovations like Virtual Reality happening on a daily basis. 

As games developers and software providers become more in tune with what a player wants when they find a game they like, then so will those players find more games that are more in tune with what the player wants, and so on. 

Milestones that affected the industry conclusion 

A few years ago, it would be fair to say that the milestones that affected the industry would be yet to be seen. But this is not the case as it stands now, we can see clearly that the rise of online gaming has really impacted the online slots world in a positive way. 

As more people want to game online and play online slot games, the more the online gaming industry and slots industry continues to grow and give us better games year after year with a great gaming experience.