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Have you ever seen a slot machine? Of course you have… you wouldn't be here if you haven't, but do you know what's inside those colorful machines, what makes them tick as they say? Well, if you do, you can skip forward, but if you wish to learn about the history and what's inside those metal boxes filled with money, read on.

Charles August Fey

Jan 04, 2016  All slot machines are not created equal, just as Canadian casinos do not all represent the same payout percentages on their slots. However, the inner mechanisms that make a slot machine tick are comparably orchestrated, in the same way that Canada’s gambling facilities all abide by the same regulatory framework.

The man credited for the construction of the first slot machine was named Charles August Fey, a German national who moved to San Francisco in the late nineteenth century.

1. May 24, 2018  Question of the Day - 24 May 2018. “Public health is one of the reasons that casinos stopped accepting any type of coin for slot machines. Coins move through so many hands and collect so many germs that they're considered at least a minor health risk.” Besides, “Coin handling, counting, etc. Is a labor-intensive process and coins are also heavy.
2. Sadly, many of the beautiful, much-loved slot machines of yesterday are no longer with us. Casinos want to squeeze as much out of a slot machine as they can, so many old slot machines which have been removed from the casino floor are sent off to the workshop to be dismantled and used for parts, or otherwise sold as scrap.

Mr. Fey was amazed and inspired by the devices created by his fellow inventor Gustav Schultze, which were widely spread in hair salons and paid off only in cigars and free drinks.

Mr. Fey, who was working as a mechanic at the time, completed the construction of the first coin-accepting device in 1894 and a year later, he built his second gambling machine, which quickly became very popular. Thus, Mr. Fey seized the opportunity, quit his job and started mass production.

Originally, Mr. Fey's devices provided the opportunity to win cigars, but demand for cash payouts made him modify his creations to give money as a reward.

In 1899, he set up a device named the “Liberty Bell”, or the first model of the slot machine as we know it today. The machine was equipped with three reels with six different symbols: diamond, heart, spade, horseshoe, star and a cracked Liberty Bell. The reels were set in motion when the handle on the side was pushed down and the winnings depended on the symbols the player got, as the largest payout of 50 cents was given when three Liberty Bells appeared on the payline.

Another famous creation of his was the first “Draw Poker” machine, which included five reels each holding ten cards. The payout of the device was based on the rank of the player's hand. For example, a player having a royal flush would be paid the largest amount of money. However, having spots for only fifty cards, the ten of spades and the jack of hearts were often excluded and without those two, the chances of anyone getting a royal flush were minimal.

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Unfortunately, in 1906 San Francisco was hit by an earthquake which destroyed all but four of the “Liberty Bell” machines. One of the survivors can be seen at the Liberty Belle Saloon in Reno, Nevada, where the machine is displayed as an antique.

Herbert Stephen Mills

Although the first batch of slot machines was destroyed, the technology behind them survived and it was quickly copied by opportunistic entrepreneurs, such as Herbert Stephen Mills.

Mr. Mills established the Mills Novelty Company of Chicago and began production of the Mills Liberty Bell, High Top and Golden Falls, which became popular and spread across the country very rapidly. One could often see the machines in saloons, bowling alleys, pool clubs and other places of entertainment.

A while later, manufacturers started the production of bigger gambling machines, which had a large spinning wheel, sliced into sections with different colors. In order to win, a player had to bet on a color, pull the lever and hope for the wheel to stop at one of his winning sectors. Depending on the scale of the wheel, the sections ranged from fifty to one hundred colors.

This type of gambling machines attracted a lot of fans and became the most popular game to play, but after a while the excitement faded away and without wasting any time, Mr. Mills unveiled its newest game, called the Kalamazoo, which was one of the first floor machines. Once the device proved to be successful, it triggered a wave of copycats, which may have been a little different or even improved, but still based on the same principle. The Kalamazoo allowed its players to insert a maximum of five coins and paid up to $1 dollar, while the Duplex, which was created by Mr. Fey, enabled its players to insert as many as ten coins.

As a result of various techniques and marketing methods, Mills' business grew rapidly and in 1927, he became one of the nation's largest suppliers of slot machines. An interesting feature that distinguished Mill's products from those, offered by the competition, was that they provided extra motivation. For instance, a player could always see the money inside that he would get, if he hit the right combination. Additionally, a player could also see three rows of symbols every time the reels stopped and exactly how close he was to the much desired win.

Eventually, people got bolder and demanded machines with larger denominations, which spurred an industry race. In 1928, Charles Fey introduced the Silver Dollar slot, or the first machine to accept coins of that size.

In less than thirty years, the manufacturing of slot machines transformed into a very lucrative and very popular business. During that timeframe, more than one million slot machines were manufactured on a global scale. A lot of new facilities were created, with each one introducing new modifications, including the swap of the steel casing for one made of aluminum, which was widely adopted.

Slot machines enjoyed an increasing demand from the “speakeasies” establishments, which reminded of present day bars, but during the Prohibition period they were considered illegal and were often frowned upon.

The Period after the Great Depression

The slot machines survived and even flourished during the Prohibition and the Depression, but their boom was not accepted by everyone and many politicians and law enforcement officers were openly expressing their criticism and even fought against the industry. However, their efforts were futile as people continued to visit their local saloons or bowling alleys and spent hours in front of the ”one-armed bandits”.

During World War II many factories were closed and repurposed for manufacturing weapons for the military, while those facilities that were not involved in the weapon construction were hit by a shortage of aluminum. Thus, the factories were forced to go back to iron casings. Eventually, the war effort caught up with everybody and the production of slot machines was completely put to a halt in 1942 until the end of the armed conflict.

Around the early 1950s, the self-taught carver and renowned artist Frank Polk was also drawn to the appeal of slot machines. Mr. Polk created a series of hand-made wooden cases for machines like the Mills High-Tops, which quickly became very popular due to their life-like designs. The casings often resembled Indians, cowboys, miners and other western figures. Nowadays Polk's work is considered a treasure trove for collectors.

Bally's Innovations

In the 1960s another innovation to the slots machine industry was introduced by Bally Manufacturing, which had been in the business of making arcade games and similar coin-powered machines for more than thirty years. The company implemented the usage of electro-mechanical circuitry in order to recognize a large number of payout possibilities. Additionally, Bally swapped the single-coin slicer and installed a hopper payout mechanism, which allows a slot machine to pay out as much as 500 coins without the help of an attendant.

The company's string of innovations let it surpass its competitors and dominate the industry, controlling around 90% of all slot machines in Nevada during the 1970s. In 1967 Bally launched the first slot machine, named “809”, which offered a payout proportional to the deposited amount. The minimum bet for the machines was set at one coin, while the maximum – at five.

In the 1980s the company released its Series E, which marked a huge leap towards the slot machine as we know it today. Those devices were equipped with microprocessors which controlled every move that the machine does, additionally the new technology captured and stored information about different metrics, including when the last payout occurred, how much it was, how many times the machine was played etc.

Additionally, Bally implemented music chips into those microprocessors, giving the slot machine the ability to generate different sounds when coins were inserted or the reels were spun.

However, with the development and the utilization of new technologies, Bally took a step back but still remained in business, offering a variety of shiny new machines. The top dog now is IGT, International Game Technology, which manufactures the majority of the top earners among the slot machines. Additionally, IGT introduced the first cloud technology used on slot machines in 2011.

Of course, new online slots cannot be cheated as they are online and the results are completely random. This is ensured with the use of a Random Number Generator. However, in the past, some shady people have managed to figure out ways that they can cheat the slots in a casino. However, nowadays casinos know what to look for in order to catch and prevent these cheats from occurring.

Coins On A String

This is perhaps the simplest of all the methods that we will outline here at Wizard Slots. It just involves a string attached to a coin. Quite simply, the cheater would insert the coin and ensure that the credit was registered on the slot machine. Then, when the spin had begun, they would pull the coin back out in order to use it again. This method was discovered when in a book called “Slot Machine Drama”, Dwight and Louise Crevelt recounted that they were playing slots when it jammed. Upon calling a technician to fix it, they discovered a coin with a nylon string threaded through the hole. This must’ve been from the previous player who had actually lost their coin. Nowadays, however, this ‘trick’ does not work on newer machines due to the fact that newer machines do not accept coins as wagers and they do not pay out in coins.

Foreign Coins

In 1980s Nevada, slot cheats took advantage of the production of washers that were exactly the same weight and size as American coins. These coins were subsequently found all over the state in various slot machines. This was the same of foreign coins that were actually found in slot machines also and had been accepted as a higher value than they were really worth. Mexican one peso coins were the most infamous amongst casinos in 1985 as they were accepted in the machine as 25 cent pieces.

However, this cheat also stopped working when the production of modern slot machines began as they do not accept coins, but instead only accept notes in the machines. Even then, the casinos are consistently diligent in ensuring that all notes are scanned in order to validate them before allowing them to be exchanged for credits.

Magnet Cheats

Today, you may look a bit weird walking around the casino holding a large magnet with the intention of attempting to ‘grab’ any coins determined by the reels. However, these days, slot machines are thoroughly protected from external magnetic fields. The method also does not work because payouts are no longer generated by the reel symbols but a random number generator. Therefore, if a jackpot combination shows on the reels but not on the RNG, then the casino does not have to pay you.

Filling The Machine

Casino employees were the ones that benefitted from this cheat. Not for long, though, as they were caught and arrested. When filling the slot machines, employees could keep a hold of some coins in the bag so that the machines were only a few coins down. An honest mistake, right? Wrong. Employees would then be a few coins up every time they filled the machines and over time, this would amount to quite a large amount of money.

Climb Inside The Machine

This is the most obvious of all of the cheats on the list but was also the most difficult to get away with because of the fact that you have to physically climb into the machine without attracting the attention of the security guards. You then have to be able to manipulate the reels in order to win the slots.

The Monkey Paw Cheat

Tommy Glenn Carmichael was the most infamous for creating devices that essentially allowed him to ‘hack’ new electronic slot machines into paying out. The Monkey Paw was created to allow the player to receive payouts without even wagering. It was made out of a guitar string and a metal wand that would be threaded through an air vent to trip a switch that triggered a payout.

Coin Slot Machines

Carmichael functioned in casinos and developed these devices for nearly 40 years. However, he was eventually caught, arrested and had 2 of his homes seized. Following his stint in prison, he began to help the Nevada Gaming Commission to stop people cheating in Las Vegas casinos. He did this by developing “The Protector” that prevented devices like the ones he made from being put into the machines.

When Did Slot Machines Stop Using Coins 2017

The Light Wand

This was a device that was also developed by Carmichael which was developed about slot machines began to use Random Number Generators for electronic slots. New slots were tripped by an electronic sensor rather than a physical switch. The light wand worked in a way that it would be put into the payout chute where all the coins would pool. Then the light would set the sensor off and therefore issue a payout.

Spooning

No, this is not a hug but is instead a way that cheaters thought they had beaten the casinos. In old slot machines, payouts were paid by coin tubes. The coins would pool into the tubes and whenever someone would win, the slides at the bottom of the tube would open and distribute the amount needed.

Cheaters took advantage of this and would manage to insert a spoon into the tube that would keep the slide open. Subsequently, the tube would drop all the coins that it was holding. This worked for a while but it was also prevented with the production of new slot machines.

Our Verdict

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You can play slots online win real money without having to go to all that effort of finding ways to cheat in the casino whilst also avoiding security and prison. All of these methods also have ways of being prevented. Instead, you can play fun slots fairly here and have more fun.