First Coin-operated Machine
The first coin-operated machines were invented in the late 1880's in the East and became popular in San Francisco. The first model of machines was not the reel slot we see now. It was more like a poker machine. Each reel had cards instead of cherries and bells. "Most of the early models, called drop card machines, employed fifty cards on five drums, tow cards short of a complete deck. Usually, the two cards missing were the jack of hearts and ten of spades cutting the possibility of a Royal Flush in half." (Marshall Fey, 13) Those machines were placed in saloons or cigar shops. Players won cigar or drinks as a prize if they hit the poker hands on the machine. They spread in the city of San Francisco rapidly. By 1890, the city had 3,117 licensed establishments with these card machines.

Charles Fey; Father of reel slots 
The first slot machines that looked like the one we know now was invented in San Francisco in 1899. The inventor was the Bavarian immigrant named Charles Fey. He named the machine as "Liberty Bell". Liberty Bell shaped just like current slots. It had three reels, a pay-out schedule, and a coin acceptor and a large handle on the right side of the machine. "Charles Fey placed his first Liberty Bell in a San Francisco saloon to test its worth. It was such an instant success that the quit his job to devote all his time into building more of these little money makers." (Marshall Fey, page 22) Fey monopolized slot machine market, and made a big success.

Fay was born in Vohringen, Bavaria on February 2, 1862. He was 16th and last child in the family. He immigrated to San Francisco in 1885 when he was 23 years old and started working as a machinist. He was employed at the California Electric Works since 1887, and met Theodore Holtez, who became a future partner for his business. Fey and Holtez quit their jobs with California Electric Works in 1894, and start their company, Holtz and Fey Electric Works. In 1895, Holtz and Fey Electric Works released their first coin-operated machine, 4-11-44. The 4-11-44 machine was the gaming machine that had three numbered dials one behind the other. The 4-11-44 made a smash hit, and they kept improving their products. In 1899, their masterpiece and the first reel slot, Liberty Bell, was released. Liberty Bell got popularity rapidly and Holtz and Fey Electric Works grow as the giant in the slot machine manufacturing.

However, their monopoly of the bell slot machine could not last forever. "Early on the morning of April 18, 1906, the city of San Francisco was rudely awakened by the violent shakes of a tremendous earthquake." (Marshall Fey, page 23) Fey lost his major factory with this earthquake, and suddenly lost his domination in the market.

The second important person in the slot machine history is Herbert Stephen Mill from Chicago. In 1909, Mill modified the Fay's machine. He added ten more symbols to each reel, and make it more mobile and space saving. The new machine was named as Mills' Liberty Bell. "The tremendous success of Fey's Liberty Bell was no secret of Mills and it was not long before the mass manufacture of Mills' Liberty Bells began." (Marshall Fey, page 23) Mill's Liberty Bell began to grow their share in the slot machine market after Fey's Liberty Bell went down.

Anti-gambling Movement

The difficult era for slot machines started at the beginning of 1900's. The anti-gambling movement emerged. In 1909, San Francisco outlawed slot machines. A year later, Nevada did. Then in 1911, the rest of California followed San Francisco and prohibit slot machines in 1911. During the era, people in the slot industry saw the hard time. For the appeal of anti-gambling movement, many slot machines were smashed with hammer, burned and dumped to the sea. In 1934, New York's Mayor, La Guardia made a big political appeal of anti-gambling. The picture that shows Mayor with broken slot machines at that time is shown in the book, Slot Machines --- A Pictorial History of the First 100 Years. The author, Marshall Fey, commented on that picture as following.

In 1934 New York's Mayor La Guardia posed for the press on a barge full of machines destined to be buried at sea. Besides destroying a Mills Poinsettia, numerous Fey 3 JACKS, and a claw machine which may be played for amusement, the overzealous mayor is also dooming innocent games such as a chocolate vender, and Old Mill candy vender, and a gumball machine --- none of which could ever be used as a gambling device. That was the definitely hardest period for many slot machine manufacturers.

The Electronic Age 

One of the biggest innovations on slot machine is the birth of electronic machines. Before electronic age, slot machines were all mechanical. In that era, all slot machines had a big handle, players have to pull the handle to play the game, and reels started spinning mechanically. However those machines had many problems especially from the security standpoint. It was very easy to cheat on those machines. However, slot machines began to adopt electronic microprocessors in it as the computerization in the society went on. According to Slot Machines---A Pictorial History of the First 100 Years, "The age of electronic casino games was inaugurated in 1964 with the Nevada Electronics solid state twenty-one machines. These sit-down slots were built in both two- and four-player configurations." (Marshall Fey, 213)

Electronic slots has two advantage compared with mechanical slots. First advantage is that they were more secure than mechanical slots. Mechanical slots were operated mechanically. Players could cheat on them easily. However, electronic slots solved that problem. Second advantage was operators could offer bigger prize on electronic machines. Mechanical slots had the limitation on their prize, because they had physical limitation to make stops on the reels. However, on electronic slots, operators could make stops as much as they want. As the result of the technology, operators came to be able to give large prize to players.

Video Machines 

The first video slot was introduced 1975 by Walt Fraley in Las Vegas. The first video slot, named Fortune Coin, was very simple machine, which had only three components, such as "a solid state logic assembly, a television set, and a hopper." (Marshall Fey, page 216) By the mid 1970's, electronic video slot machines spread into the industry gradually. However, Even though the new technology was introduced, they were still the minority in casino games for a long time. Video slots were not well accepted in the market. Players doubted if they were able to hit prize truly because they could not see actual spinning reels on the video slots. It was not until 1980's when video poker machines became popular, that those video machines penetrated the market.

The first video polar machines were introduced by Dale Electronics in 1970. They simplified the rule of the America's most favorite game and adopt it to the video game. It became prevalent in Nevada casinos, but it was not such a big hit. The turning point was in 1979 when IGT introduced the first well-accepted video poker machine, DRAW POKER. It made a smash hit, and video slots began to penetrate to the market widely as IGT's DRAW POKER spread into the industry. Tex Sheahan described that in the article, The Video Machines, in GAMBLING TIMES, November 1982 as following.

"The rapid and easily noticeable replacement rate is a clear indicator of the effectiveness of the newer models. Rows of them are appearing like magic, with the poker machines leading the video parade."