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The most widespread type of slot machines being played today is a Video Poker machine. Of course, there are many more types and categories of video slot machines out there. Yet, no matter how large their variety may be, they differ from classic slot machines in only one major respect: all necessary information required for playing and the control panel are displayed on the electronic monitor.
History
The history of the first classic one-armed bandits that with time evolved into modern video slot machines, is traced back to the late 19th century. In 1897 Charles Fey, a German American mechanic living in San Francisco, devised the legendary Liberty Bell, a mechanical slot machine with three reels. Despite the relatively short period of prohibition against gambling imposed in the beginning of the 20th century, this machine could soon be seen not just in nearly each entertainment establishment including casinos, but also in many bars, hotels, drugstores and even hair salons.
The true prototype of the modern video slot machine was the first electromechanical slot known as Money Honey. Created in 1964 by Bally Manufacturing engineers, this gaming device looked much more like a present day slot machine than the reel slots did, for one thing, because the game was accompanied by music and coloured flashing lights.
Only nine years later was a full-fledged video slot machine born officially, when in 1975 the American Walt Fraley created a device called Fortune Coin. Unfortunately for Fraley, gamblers turned sceptical about his invention and were reluctant to trust the ’virtual bandits’ that he was trying to replace the old one-armed bandits with. As a result, he was forced to sell his technology to IGT, a company that started mass production of video slot machines and soon, thanks to this new production line, became the second biggest slot machine manufacturer in the world.
Video slot machines saw a sharp increase in recognition in 1979, right after the Video Poker machine was introduced. The idea of playing this exciting card game one-on-one with a machine, without having to interact with other players and a dealer, appealed to the gamblers so much that in the 1980s Video Poker nearly beat both Texas Hold’em and Omaha Poker in popularity. In the same decade video slot machines offering a variety of bonuses emerged, giving players an opportunity to win, among other things, a multi-million-dollar progressive jackpot or at least to play a free bonus game. Aside from some technical details, these machines have since then remained unchanged and are still spread worldwide.
General principles
Video slot machines significantly diversified slot machine gambling. Modern video slots feature many special bonuses allowing players to expect additional wins.
Unlike in classic one-armed bandits, the number of virtual reels spinning on the display of a video slot machine is usually expanded to five. The expanded number of reels increases the total number of possible combinations. One reel may have up to 50 symbols, which translates into nearly 300 million various combinations.
Another feature distinguishing the modern video slot machine from the classic slot is that in the former the payout symbols are not weighted. The symbols having a higher value simply appear on the wheel more rarely, while the lower paying symbols are much more frequent.
Video slot machines allow gamblers to play several paylines that may be horizontal, vertical and even diagonal. In the long run, however, the profits made by the casinos are not significantly affected by how many playlines the player plays, but playing multiple paylines does increase player’s chances to win in short run. It is also noteworthy that the more paylines one plays, the bigger the player’s total cost.
Rules
Despite the vast variety of video slot machines, they all operate on the same principles. To play any video slot, a gambler just needs to learn how to use the control buttons and understand how the pay schedules work. The pay schedules list all possible winning combinations and the corresponding payouts. One rule that a player always has to follow is that the manner of playing does not affect the odds of winning, and, thus, it’s irrelevant whether the player plays slowly or quickly, using a single or multiple coins.
Each video slot machine has a button panel. By pressing the button, the player controls the game process. Their number varies and sometimes reaches 10-15. One line has buttons that control the number of credits played. Each of these buttons corresponds to the number of credits available: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, etc. Another line has buttons determining the number of playlines to be played, as well as the Bet Max button and finally the Cash / Collect button, by pressing which the player receives the payout.
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