Slot machine
A slot machine, fruit machine, puggie, poker machine or pokie machine is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers.
A slot machine's standard layout features a screen displaying three or more reels that "spin" when the game is activated. Some modern slot machines still include a lever as a skeuomorphic design trait to trigger play. However, the mechanical operations of early machines have been superseded by random number generators, and most are now operated using buttons and touchscreens.
Slot machines include one or more currency detectors that validate the form of payment, whether coin, banknote, voucher, or token. The machine pays out according to the pattern of symbols displayed when the reels stop "spinning". Slot machines are the most popular gambling method in casinos and contribute about 70% of the average U.S. casino's income.
Digital technology has resulted in variations in the original slot machine concept. As the player is essentially playing a video game, manufacturers can offer more interactive elements, such as advanced bonus rounds and more varied video graphics. Slot machines’ terminology, characteristics, and regulation vary by country of manufacture and use.
Terms and their sources
The "slot machine" term derives from the slots on the machine for inserting and retrieving coins. "Fruit machine" comes from the traditional fruit images on the spinning reels such as lemons and cherries. Slot machines are also known pejoratively as "one-armed bandits", alluding to the large mechanical levers affixed to the sides of early mechanical machines, and to the games' ability to empty players' pockets and wallets as thieves would.History
In the 1890s a number of patents were taken out on gambling machines that were precursors to the modern slot machine, most notably an 1893 design by Sittman and Pitt of Brooklyn, New York. It contained five drums holding a total of 50 card faces and was based on poker. The machine proved extremely popular, and soon many bars in the city had one or more of them. Players would insert a nickel and pull a lever, which would spin the drums and the cards that they held, the player hoping for a good poker hand. There was no direct payout mechanism, so a pair of kings might get the player a free beer, whereas a royal flush could pay out cigars or drinks; the prizes were wholly dependent upon what the establishment would offer. To improve the odds for the house, two cards were typically removed from the deck, the ten of spades and the jack of hearts, doubling the odds against winning a royal flush. The drums could also be rearranged to further reduce a player's chance of winning.Because of the vast number of possible wins in the original poker-based game, it proved practically impossible to make a machine capable of awarding an automatic payout for all possible winning combinations. At some time between 1887 and 1895, Charles Fey of San Francisco, California, devised a much simpler automatic mechanism with three spinning reels containing a total of five symbols: horseshoes, diamonds, spades, hearts and a Liberty Bell; the bell gave the machine its name. By replacing ten cards with five symbols and using three reels instead of five drums, the complexity of reading a win was considerably reduced, allowing Fey to design an effective automatic payout mechanism. Three bells in a row produced the biggest payoff, ten nickels. Liberty Bell was a huge success and spawned a thriving mechanical gaming device industry. After a few years, the devices were banned in California, but Fey still could not keep up with the demand for them elsewhere. The Liberty Bell machine was so popular that it was copied by many slot machine manufacturers. The first of these, also called the "Liberty Bell", was produced by the manufacturer Herbert Mills in 1907. By 1908, "bell" machines had been installed in cigar stores, brothels and barber shops. Early machines, including an 1899 Liberty Bell, are now part of the Nevada State Museum's Fey Collection.
The first Liberty Bell machines produced by Mills used the same symbols on the reels as did Charles Fey's original. Soon afterward, another version was produced with patriotic symbols, such as flags and wreaths, on the wheels. Later, a similar machine called the Operator's Bell was produced that included the option of adding a gum-vending attachment. As the gum offered was fruit-flavored, fruit symbols were placed on the reels: lemons, cherries, oranges and plums. A bell was retained, and a picture of a stick of Bell-Fruit Gum, the origin of the bar symbol, was also present. This set of symbols proved highly popular and was used by other companies that began to make their own slot machines: Caille, Watling, Jennings and Pace.
A commonly used technique to avoid gambling laws in several states was to award food prizes. For this reason, several gumball and other vending machines were regarded with mistrust by the courts. The two Iowa cases of State v. Ellis and State v. Striggles are both used in criminal law classes to illustrate the concept of reliance upon authority as it relates to the axiomatic ignorantia juris non excusat. In these cases, a mint vending machine was declared to be a gambling device because the machine would, by internally manufactured chance, occasionally give the next user several tokens exchangeable for more candy. Despite the display of the result of the next use on the machine, the courts ruled that "he machine appealed to the player's propensity to gamble, and that is vice."
In 1963, Bally developed the first fully electromechanical slot machine called Money Honey. Its electromechanical workings made Money Honey the first slot machine with a bottomless hopper and automatic payout of up to 500 coins without the help of an attendant. The popularity of this machine led to the increasing predominance of electronic games, with the side lever soon becoming vestigial.
The first video slot machine was developed in 1976 in Kearny Mesa, California by the Las Vegas–based Fortune Coin Co. This machine used a modified Sony Trinitron color receiver for the display and logic boards for all slot-machine functions. The prototype was mounted in a full-size, show-ready slot-machine cabinet. The first production units went on trial at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel. After some modifications to defeat cheating attempts, the video slot machine was approved by the Nevada State Gaming Commission and eventually found popularity on the Las Vegas Strip and in downtown casinos. Fortune Coin Co. and its video slot-machine technology were purchased by IGT in 1978.
The first American video slot machine to offer a "second screen" bonus round was Reel 'Em In, developed by WMS Industries in 1996. This type of machine had appeared in Australia from at least 1994 with the Three Bags Full game. With this type of machine, the display changes to provide a different game in which an additional payout may be awarded.
Operation
Depending on the machine, the player can insert cash or, in "ticket-in, ticket-out" machines, a paper ticket with a barcode, into a designated slot on the machine. The machine is then activated by means of a lever or button, which activates reels that spin and stop to rearrange the symbols. If a player matches a winning combination of symbols, the player earns credits based on the paytable. Symbols vary depending on the theme of the machine. Classic symbols include objects such as fruits, bells, and stylized lucky sevens. Most slot games have a theme, such as a specific style, location, or character. Symbols and other bonus features of the game are typically aligned with the theme. Some themes are licensed from popular media franchises, including films, television series, entertainers, and musicians.Multi-line slot machines have become more popular since the 1990s. These machines have more than one payline, meaning that visible symbols that are not aligned on the main horizontal may be considered as winning combinations. Traditional three-reel slot machines commonly have one, three, or five paylines while video slot machines may have 9, 15, 25, or as many as 1024 different paylines. Most accept variable numbers of credits to play, with 1 to 15 credits per line being typical. The higher the amount bet, the higher the payout will be if the player wins.
One of the main differences between video slot machines and reel machines is in the way payouts are calculated. With reel machines, the only way to win the maximum jackpot is to play the maximum number of coins. With video machines, the fixed payout values are multiplied by the number of coins per line that is being bet. In other words: on a reel machine, the odds are more favorable if the gambler plays with the maximum number of coins available. However, depending on the structure of the game and its bonus features, some video slots may still include features that improve chances at payouts by making increased wagers.
"Multi-way" games eschew fixed paylines in favor of allowing symbols to pay anywhere, as long as there is at least one in at least three consecutive reels from left to right. Multi-way games may be configured to allow players to bet by-reel: for example, on a game with a 3x5 pattern, playing one reel allows all three symbols in the first reel to potentially pay, but only the center row pays on the remaining reels. Other multi-way games use a 4x5 or 5x5 pattern, where there are up to five symbols in each reel, allowing for up to 1,024 and 3,125 ways to win respectively. The Australian manufacturer Aristocrat brands games featuring this system as "Reel Power", "Xtra Reel Power" and "Super Reel Power" respectively. A variation involves patterns where symbols are adjacent to one another. Most of these games have a hexagonal reel formation, and much like multi-way games, any patterns not played are darkened out of use.
Denominations can range from 1 cent all the way up to $100.00 or more per credit. The latter are typically known as "high limit" machines, and machines configured to allow for such wagers are often located in dedicated areas. The machine automatically calculates the number of credits the player receives in exchange for the cash inserted. Newer machines often allow players to choose from a selection of denominations on a splash screen or menu.