Slot machines have been around for well over a century, and in this time the technology powering them has changed significantly, to the point that the players of the earliest examples would undoubtedly be mystified by modern equivalents.

Here is a look at this impressive evolution in a little more detail, giving you an insight into the achievements of successive generations of slot machine designers and engineers.

Mechanical beginnings

While today websites like Manyspins.com  host all-digital slots that can be played from any location using a smartphone, in the late 19th century when the first games of this kind were created, their operation was entirely mechanical.

Interestingly it was a company in New York City which built the first product which we would recognize as a slot machine, although it was unsurprisingly primitive in terms of its operation. Players would pull a lever, and five drums within the machine would rotate to reveal a randomized poker hand.

If the player got lucky, their hand would win them a prize, which of course the proprietor of the establishment in which the machine was housed would have to hand over. This generated demand for a new type of machine in which payouts could be automated, which eventually inspired inventor Charles Fey to step into the fray with his own automatic slot machine, made up with 3 reels rather than 5.

Initially, the biggest payout available was just 50¢, although as mechanical slot machines grew in popularity and the decades passed, larger jackpots became more commonplace.

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