 
HISTORY OF SLOTS
American Charles Fey is credited with
inventing the slot machine in the late 1800s. The machines
gained popularity in Las Vegas in the late 1940s when
Bugsy Siegel installed his Flamingo Hilton with several
hundred of them. They were originally intended to entertain
wives and girlfriends of high-rollers. It is interesting
to note that today many high-rollers, both male and
female, are Slot players. Virtually anyone who visits
a casino, even for the first time, is familiar with
a slot machine and how it operates: just put in your
money, pull the handle and wait a few seconds to see
if you win. One of the most appealing aspects of playing
the slots is the fact that it isn’t intimidating
like most table games where you really need some knowledge
of the rules before you play. It’s this basic
simplicity that accounts for much of the success of
slot machines in the modern American casino.
As a matter of fact, the biggest money-maker for casinos is the slot machine with approximately 60 to 65 percent of the average casino’s profits being generated by slot machine play. Just to give you an example of the scale we are talking about here, in the state of Nevada’s fiscal year ending June 30, 1998 the total combined earnings of casinos was a little more than $7.8 billion. Of that amount, slightly more than $5 billion, or about 64 percent, was from slot machine winnings.
Fey invented the first slot machine way back in 1895. He went on to perfect his initial innovation in 1907, when he teamed up with the Mills Novelty Company which manufactured the "Mills Liberty Bell." The Liberty Bell featured a cast iron case and originally had cast iron feet with toes. In later models the toes were scrapped and replaced with ornately decorated feet. However, the era of cast-iron slot machines ended in 1915 when Mills replaced them with much less expensive wood cabinets. In the 1930s, the Mills Novelty Company made a number of changes to its line of slot machines that would revolutionize the industry.
It was during this period of economic upheaval that the slot machine gained extensive popularity across America. When Siegel added slots to the floor of his Flamingo Hilton, there was no stopping their proliferation. Although originally intended as a mere from of mindless entertainment for a specific demographic, revenue from the slot machine very quickly surpassed that of all table games. By the 1990s, slot machines accounted for over two-thirds of all casino revenue in the United States.
History of gambling
History of Baccarat
History of Caribbean Stud Poker
History of Blackjack
History of Craps
History of Keno
History of Pai Gow Poker
History of Roulette
History of Slots
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