The slot machine is one of the longest-lived pieces of gaming technology still in everyday use. Its history is a story of changing hardware around an unchanging premise: a player sets the reels in motion and a fixed set of rules decides the result.
The mechanical era (1895–1960s)
The first recognisably modern machine, the Liberty Bell, was built by the mechanic Charles Fey in San Francisco around 1895. It used three reels and five symbols — including the cracked liberty bell that gave it its name — and paid out coins automatically when matching symbols lined up. Early imitators replaced some symbols with fruit and chewing-gum flavours, which is why fruit imagery still appears on classic slots today.
The electromechanical era (1960s–1970s)
In 1963 Bally introduced Money Honey, the first electromechanical machine with an automatic payout hopper that could dispense large numbers of coins without an attendant. Electromechanics allowed bigger jackpots and more elaborate features while keeping the familiar lever and reels.
The video era (1976 onward)
In 1976 the company Fortune Coin demonstrated the first video slot, replacing physical reels with a screen. Video displays removed the mechanical limit on the number of symbols per reel, which made far larger jackpots and more complex feature design possible. By the 1990s the second-screen bonus round — a separate interactive feature triggered from the base game — had become a defining feature of the format.
The online era (1998 onward)
The first internet casinos appeared in the late 1990s and brought reel games to web browsers. Online distribution decoupled the game from the cabinet entirely: a single certified maths model could be deployed to thousands of operators at once, updated centrally, and audited by independent test houses. The 2010s added engines such as Megaways, which vary the number of symbols on each reel from spin to spin, and the broad shift to mobile-first design.
The online era also changed who builds the games. In the cabinet era a handful of manufacturers shipped physical hardware; online, specialist studios such as NetEnt (founded 1996) and Play’n GO (1997) could distribute purely digital titles, while established names like IGT and the company now trading as Light & Wonder carried their land-based catalogues onto the web. Progressive jackpots, once confined to machines wired together within a single casino floor, became networked across whole operator estates — which is how online progressives have produced individual payouts in the tens of millions of euros.
What stayed the same
For all the changes in hardware, the underlying proposition has been remarkably stable since 1895: a player stakes a wager, a fixed set of rules decides the result, and the house retains a small mathematical margin over the long run. Each technological leap — automatic payout, electromechanics, video, networked online play — widened the range of features and jackpots a game could offer, but none of them altered that basic structure. Understanding the history mainly helps explain why modern slots look and behave the way they do, from the persistence of fruit symbols to the published return figures that the online era made standard.
Timeline of milestones
| Year | Milestone | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| 1895 | Liberty Bell | Charles Fey builds the first fully automatic three-reel machine in San Francisco. |
| 1907 | Operator Bell | Fruit symbols appear; the design spreads widely across the United States. |
| 1963 | Money Honey | Bally releases the first electromechanical slot with an automatic hopper. |
| 1976 | Fortune Coin | The first video slot replaces physical reels with a screen display. |
| 1996 | Reel ’Em In | WMS popularises the second-screen bonus round. |
| 1998 | Online slots | The first internet casinos bring reel games to web browsers. |
| 2015 | Megaways | Big Time Gaming introduces the variable-reel “ways-to-win” engine. |
Frequently asked questions
Who invented the slot machine?
The first recognisably modern machine, the Liberty Bell, is credited to the San Francisco mechanic Charles Fey around 1895. Earlier poker-card gambling machines existed in the late 1880s, but Fey’s three-reel automatic-payout design set the template that survives today.
Why do classic slots use fruit symbols?
When anti-gambling laws spread in the early 1900s, makers such as the Operator Bell reframed machines as vending devices that paid out fruit-flavoured chewing gum. The cherry, lemon and plum symbols — and the “BAR” mark derived from the Bell-Fruit Gum logo — date from that era and have stayed on classic slots by convention.
When did the first video slot appear?
In 1976 the Las Vegas company Fortune Coin demonstrated the first video slot, which replaced physical reels with a screen. It was approved by gaming regulators a couple of years later, and the technology spread quickly once the limit on symbols per reel was removed.
When did online slots first become available?
The first internet casinos appeared in the late 1990s and brought reel games to web browsers. Online distribution separated the game from the cabinet, allowing a single certified maths model to be deployed to many operators at once and updated centrally.
What changed with Megaways slots?
Big Time Gaming introduced the Megaways engine in 2015. Rather than fixed paylines, it varies the number of symbols on each reel from spin to spin, producing up to 117,649 ways to win and prompting a wave of licensed Megaways titles from other studios.
Updated January 5, 2024