Slot machines history begins with the first machine developed by Sittman and Pitt in 1891. These Brooklyn natives created a machine that contained 5 drums holding a total of 50 card faces and was based on Poker. Little did they know that with that action, they were giving birth to the history of Slot machines.

Slot machines quickly proved to be extremely popular and soon there was hardly a bar in New York that didn't have one of them. In the first Slot machines, the players would insert a nickel and pull a lever which would spin the drums, with the player hoping for a good Poker hand. These machines had no direct payout mechanism, so a pair of Kings would get you a free beer, whereas a Royal Flush could payout cigars or drinks.

The next chapter in Slot machines history was the first "one-armed bandit" invented in 1895 by Charles Fey. Fey, from San Francisco, devised a much simpler automatic mechanism than the one in Sittman and Pitt's machine. Due to the vast number of possible wins in the original Poker based game, it proved practically impossible to come up with a machine capable of making an automatic pay-out for all the possible winning combinations. Therefore, Fey devised a machine with three spinning reels containing a total of five symbols.

Another later innovation in the history of Slot machines was the machine that gave out winnings in the form of fruit flavoured chewing gums, with their pictures as symbols on the reels. The popular cherry and melon symbols derive from this machine. The "BAR" symbol now common in Slot machines was derived from an early logo of the Bell-Fruit Gum Company. It wasn't until 1964, that Bally developed the first fully electromechanical Slot machine.

Slot Machine improvements and innovations have reached present day with fully computerized machines, with amazing graphics and sound, but haven't really changed the principles of how Slots work. In the last years, Slot machines have even invaded the Internet, becoming one of the most popular Casino games on the web.