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Over the course of a successful career, Charles August Fey made significant contributions to the development of America’s gaming industry. He is remembered today as the creator of the modern slot machine and as the “Thomas Edison of slots.”

Introduction

American business and technology has long profited from the ingenuity, technical know-how, and practical skills of immigrants such as Charles August Fey (born February 2, in Vöhringen, Bavaria; died November 4, , San Francisco, CA) who arrived in the United States in at the age of twenty three.[1] Born Augustinus Jospehus Fey in the small Bavarian village of Vöhringen, Charles Fey started working at an early age. He left home at age fifteen, moving first to France and then to England before finally settling in the U.S. Possessed of a keen understanding of mechanics, Fey built his first slot machine in Soon thereafter, he built the popular slot machine and then the famous Liberty Bell, a three-reel automatic payout machine that still forms the basis of slot machines today. Fey’s slot machines represented the nexus between technological innovation and the rise of the modern entertainment industry. Much of his success lay in his ability to continually refine his machines in order to capitalize on opportunities afforded by the emerging gaming industry in late s San Francisco.

Family Background

Located in the district of Neu-Ulm in Bavaria, Vöhringen is a relatively small town that forms part of the Danube-Iller region. The town, whose history can be traced back to the 5th or 6th century A.D., underwent several changes of political administration during the 15thcentury and suffered the ravages of the Thirty Years’ War () before becoming part of the Kingdom of Bavaria in The reign of Maximilian III ()[2] brought agricultural progress and the emergence of infant industries to Bavaria, but these developments mostly benefitted large cities such as Augsburg and Nuremberg, leaving rural areas like Vöhringen largely unaffected. Changes of a more far-reaching nature first came during the reign of Max II (), when Bavaria underwent political liberalization and industrialization, processes whose effects were felt in villages throughout the kingdom. The dawn of industrialization in Bavaria as a whole was evidenced by the completion of a regional railroad system in the early s, while its arrival in Vöhringen itself was signaled by Philipp Jakob Wieland’s purchase of a local mill and adjacent factory ground in [3]

It was against this historical backdrop that Augustinus Josephus Fey was born on February 2, , to Maria (née Vollman) and Karl Fey. At the time, Vöhringen had a population of about As the youngest of fifteen children in a household with an annual family income of Gulden, Fey was part of a large and poor family. His father, Karl Josef Gustav Johann, worked as a schoolmaster and sexton of the ecumenical cathedral at Neu-Ulm between and In order to supplement his meager income, Karl Fey also served as the village council clerk and meat inspector. Though life was harsh for the family, the railroad system made it easy to escape Vöhringen. The railroad and the opportunities it afforded had a considerable impact on the young August Fey and probably sparked his desire to explore Bavaria and beyond.[4]

In , at age fourteen, Fey accompanied his older brother Edmund to his job at a farm tool factory owned by the Munich Plow Company. Fey was on school vacation at the time. His experience at the farm tool factory was no doubt significant, for it was there that he acquired basic skills in mechanics and developed a keen interest in mechanical devices. The following year, at age fifteen, Fey left Bavaria for France. His decision to leave may have been prompted by a variety of factors: it is conceivable, for instance, that he was afraid of being drafted into the new army of the recently unified German Reich. As a Bavarian, he may have felt little allegiance to a Prussian-dominated Reich and thus been especially reluctant to serve in its military. On an entirely different note, there was also a precedent for emigration within his extended family: his mother’s youngest brother, Martin Vollman, had departed for New Jersey in the s. Finally, Fey’s training at the Munich Plow Company may have also played a role in his decision to emigrate, since it gave him a marketable skill.

Indeed, when he eventually found work in France it was with an intercom equipment manufacturer in Amiens. It would appear that Fey remained in France for approximately three years, after which point he obtained a recommendation from his French employer and moved to London, where he spent the next five years as an apprentice in the nautical instrument department of a British shipyard. Presumably, Fey’s long stay in London allowed him to acquire professional skills, attain English language fluency, and save enough money to travel to the U.S., his final destination. In , he immigrated to New Jersey. At first, the twenty-three-year-old Fey lived with his uncle’s family in Hoboken, New Jersey, but after a few months he set out for California, the new land of opportunity. After trekking across the United States, he arrived in San Francisco later that year. A wide open town of saloons, honky-tonks, and gambling, San Francisco was also the center of the nation’s burgeoning coin-machine industry.[5]

Upon his arrival in San Francisco, Fey found a job as a machinist. He also met and courted Marie Christine Volkmar (), whose parents, Christian () and Emilie Volkmar (), had emigrated from Westphalia and ran a flourishing cigar business in San Francisco. But his dreams of finding permanent work and marrying Marie were shattered when Fey was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Told that he had only a year to live, he bought a horse and sought the warmer climes of Mexico, where he was determined to fight and overcome the illness. Unfortunately, his health did not improve there, so he returned to San Francisco to undergo successful creosote treatments. After recuperating and receiving a clean bill of health, Fey was ready to revisit his plans for long-lasting happiness in San Francisco. It appears that he soon found permanent employment, for the San Francisco City Directory for lists August Fey as an instrument maker employed by the California Electric Works (later Western Electric).[6] There, he befriended Theodor Holtz, a German compatriot and company foreman who later became a company partner. By the end of the s, Fey had changed his name from August Fey to Charles August Fey. (Apparently, he had always been irritated by the nickname “Gus.”) Known to intimates as Charlie, he had not forgotten Marie. He renewed his courtship with her and the two married in ; their daughter Alma was born in The young couple, who lived with Marie’s parents at Grove Street for a time,[7] quickly had two more daughters, Elsie and Marie, born in and , respectively; their only son, Edmund, was born in [8] Unfortunately, Christian and Emilie Volkmar died when their grandchildren were still young. Christian’s death was reported in the November 14, , edition of TheSan Francisco Call; Emilie’s was reported in the edition of January 5,

Business Development

During his time at California Electric Works, Fey met Theodor Holtz and Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Schultze. Both had emigrated from Germany and shared Fey’s enthusiasm for mechanical devices, particularly slot machines, which were extremely popular in San Francisco in the s. The first “nickel-in-the slot” machines dated back to the s, but they were more like vending machines than slot machines in the contemporary sense. Coin-operated gambling devices soon followed, but these early-model machines could not pay back winnings. A human attendant, usually a proprietor or a barkeeper, was needed to issue the payout. Since many of these machines were located in cigar stores and liquor-licensed establishments, payout was often in trade checks or tokens, which could be redeemed for cigars or drinks. Slot machines varied in size from counter-top models to large floor machines. Among the countertop machines, poker machines proved the most popular. Poker machines featured actual cards that flipped on five reels after the deposit of a nickel. Awards ranged from one drink for a pair of kings or aces to one hundred drinks for a royal flush.

In , Schultze was awarded a patent for his so-called Horsehoe slot machine, the first recognizably modern slot machine with an automatic payout mechanism.[9] It was the first U.S. patent issued for a gambling machine. After seeing Schultze’s design, Fey was inspired to build a slot machine with automatic payout. In , he designed his own version of the Horseshoe. That same year, after amassing sufficient start-up funds, Fey and Holtz quit their jobs at California Electric Works and founded Holtz and Fey Electric Works as equal partners on 39 Stevenson Street in San Francisco. Their company was located in close proximity to Schultze’s business, the first recorded slot machine workshop in San Francisco. Holtz and Fey Electric Works specialized in model work and gear-cutting and also provided the parts for Schultze’s machines. Like Holtz and Schultze, Fey and his family moved to Berkeley, then a small and quiet town of 6, There, in , in the basement of his residence, he completed a modified version of the Horseshoe, the groundbreaking slot machine. The name derived from the game Policy, a popular lottery game in which was the rare winning sequence. Fey’s three-disc floor machine paid up to $ for the winning number combination. Unlike other contemporary coin-operated games, Fey’s slot machine paid out coins, not trade checks or tokens, and this made it both more appealing and more lucrative than traditional poker machines of the time.[10]

Fey’s first slot machine was so successful at a local saloon that he quickly set out to produce more. In , he sold his share in Holtz and Fey Electric Works and used the money to start Charles Fey & Company.[11] At the time, Fey was working on Draw Poker, a cash-paying poker machine. As his business continued to flourish, Fey realized that he could no longer operate out of his basement workshop. In , he set up shop on the third floor of an ornate building at Market Street in the heart of San Francisco’s financial district.[12] The move helped Fey grow his business, but it also allowed him to be closer to his slot machine competitors, including Schultze, Watling Manufacturing Company, and industry giant Mills Novelty Company of Chicago. A year later, in , he designed the first Card Bell slot machine, a three-reel, staggered-stop machine with automatic payout. The spinning reels, which were activated by a lever, featured suitmarks that lined up to form poker hands when the reels were at rest. It was here, in the delayed, sequential stopping of the reels of suitmarks, that the machine broke new ground by providing the player with the crucial elements of drama and suspense.[13] In , Fey modified the Card Bell, replacing some of the suitmarks with stars and bells.[14] In the process, he created the revolutionary Liberty Bell slot machine, named in honor of the United States’ famous symbol of freedom.[15]A three-reel, countertop machine with a lever on its right side, the Liberty Bell had ten symbols on each reel and ten stops, which allowed for 1, different combinations. In addition to stars and bells, the reels featured horseshoes, spades, diamonds, and hearts. Designed to return 86% of the coins inserted into it, the Liberty Bell paid out fifty cents when three bells aligned. It immediately began competing with the widely popular poker machines that were “on the counters of almost all cigar stores in San Francisco, and on the bars of saloons.”[16]

According to Marshall Fey, Charles Fey’s grandson, it was mechanically impractical to build a five-reel slot machine to simulate a five-card flush from the perspective of a poker player. This being the case, Fey “did the next best thing. He built a three-reel machine and used card symbols. Every award card on the Liberty Bell had Liberty Bell symbols on one side and Card Bell symbols on the other side.”[17] The mechanics and design of the Liberty Bell proved so influential that the term “bell-type machine” dominated the slot industry until the dawn of the electronic age.

While the rising popularity of slot machines was good news for Fey and the city’s other slot machine manufacturers, it was cause for concern for many San Francisco residents. Headlines in the local press – “Fifteen Hundred Swindling Machines in One City” – offered an alarmist take on the proliferation of slot machines[18] and marked the beginnings of a public crusade that would profoundly alter the slot machine industry in the first decades of the 20th century. Although the full impact of the anti-gambling crusade would not be felt for years to come, some of its effects, particularly in the area of patent protection, had already proved detrimental to slot machine inventors in the s. Fey was apparently not interested in patenting his machines, but even if he had been, California’s anti-gambling laws would have prevented him from doing so. As mentioned earlier, Fey’s former acquaintance Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Schutlze had been awarded a patent in for his Horseshoe slot machine. In , Schultze filed suit against Fey’s former business partner, Theodor Holtz, and others (presumably Fey as well) for infringing upon this and another patent for a coin-operated gambling machine. In the end, the court ruled against Schultze by arguing that his slot machines were illegal, and thus unworthy of protection, insofar as their sole purpose was for gambling.[19]

In the absence of patent protection, Fey decided not to sell or lease his machines; rather, in order to protect his inventions, he installed his slot machines in saloons and operated and serviced them himself. He made money through a 50/50 revenue sharing arrangement with proprietors. When proprietors began having problems with players who cheated by inserting fake nickels, Fey responded by creating a detecting pin, which was able to distinguish real coins from fakes. Fey’s business model proved extremely successful, and as more and more establishments requested his slots, he eventually expanded into the East Bay and down the peninsula to San Jose, “claiming the largest slot operation in the country during the early s.”[20] Despite his expanding business, Fey always remained focused on the San Francisco market and committed to his San Francisco location.

The spread of Fey’s slot machines throughout the city and the region meant that others had greater opportunity to copy and commercialize his devices. According to Fey’s son, Edmund, a San Francisco saloon was burglarized one night in and just two items were taken: a bartender’s apron and a Liberty Bell.[21] Two years later, a virtual replica of the Liberty Bell appeared in Chicago; it was manufactured and sold by Fey’s rival Herbert Mills of the Chicago-based Mills Novelty Company. Mills’ machine, the Mills Liberty Bell, had a different case but the internal mechanism was the same. Soon enough, other competitors, including Caille Brothers Manufacturing Company in Detroit and Watling Manufacturing Company in Chicago, began producing their own bell slot machines.

While Mills was developing his own version of the Liberty Bell, Fey was designing new slot machines and other gaming devices. At the time, his workshop was still located on the block of Market Street. Unfortunately, slot machine production ended there when Fey’s factory – and virtually the entire financial district – was destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake and fire of April 18, [22] After the disaster, many manufacturers moved their production sites to the East, but Fey chose to remain in San Francisco. With the support of Mary Phelan, a member of a prominent political family and his former landlady, he built a temporary tin-shack factory on the corner of Jesse and Fifth Streets, opposite the San Francisco Mint. Within four months he was back in business. Gambling and slot machine production rebounded quickly, and Fey had to move to a bigger site at Mission Street. At the same time, he also opened a Chicago branch office to compete with his Midwestern rivals.

The Rise of the Public Crusade against Slot Machines and Gambling

In the aftermath of the earthquake and the fire, it became ever clearer that San Francisco, and all of California, had embarked on a course that would prove increasingly difficult for Fey and other slot machine manufacturers. Indeed, for some gambling opponents, the earthquake was nothing less than a biblical sign that the nefarious slots finally had to go.

California had emerged as a national center for gaming soon after it acquired statehood in Within the state, San Francisco was particularly well known for cards, gambling, lotteries, and, of course, slot machines. By the early s, the city boasted more than 3, licensed liquor establishments and 1, slot machines.[23] Over time, however, a number of factors helped turn public opinion against gambling. They included the rise of political bosses and political machines at the local level, which bred corruption in the form of prostitution, gambling, crime, and cronyism. The public outrage that resulted from all of this directed itself at a variety of targets, including slot machines. Equally important was the spread of a more Victorian code of morality that found expression in vice prevention societies and the like. By the end of the 19th century, legislation at all levels of government had made most types of gambling illegal. In , the United States Internal Revenue Playing Card Act levied a two-cent tax on decks of cards. By the turn of the 20th century, more than half of U.S. states had passed constitutional amendments prohibiting lotteries. Arizona and New Mexico were even forced to outlaw casinos in order to gain statehood. States also passed anti-gambling legislation to repress other operations such as the “common gambling house,” the bucket shop, and the Victorian card sharp.[24]

Local legislators throughout the country joined the anti-gambling choir as well, and soon enough the fine line between a “trade stimulator,” which dispensed prizes in the form of cigars, chewing gum, stamps, or other small novelty items, and a “gambling machine” became “a tug-of-war between slot machine operators and municipal authorities.”[25] The city of San Francisco was no exception. From to , the city had supported a rather liberal gambling policy, but it took a stricter stance in subsequent years when city fathers curtailed the slot machine reward system. Since cash prizes were prohibited and merchandise was the only legal form of payout, slot machine manufacturers added amusement and merchandising features to their coin machines. Music boxes were also integrated into floor machines. In an effort to abide by the law, Fey referred to his slot machines as vending machines, put a two-cent federal revenue stamp on each machine, and programmed some of them to dispense chewing gum.

In the summer of , San Francisco passed a city ordinance outlawing slot machines altogether. The ban spelled an end to the operation of 3, slot machines with annual gross revenues of $12 million (approximately $ million in ).[26] Two years later, lawmaker William P. Kennedy introduced an anti-slot machine bill to the California state legislature. According to an article in The San Francisco Call, the terms of the bill were “such to sound the knell of slot machine gambling in the state of California.”[27] The same article also reported on the discovery of a $5, fund for the purpose of defeating the bill. Contributors to the fund, as the article explained, included “the saloon and cigar men of the northern and southern parts of the state.”[28] Among them was Fey, who was identified as a manufacturer of nickel-in-the-slot machines at Mission Street, and who was even quoted in the article. Like others who were interviewed for the piece, he denied any financial involvement in the fund, explaining, “Personally, I never contributed a cent.”[29] He did, however, express tacit support for the goal of defeating, or at least amending, the proposed legislation. “As the bill stands, it makes it practically a felony to have the machines in your possession. We wanted it amended, if possible.” The efforts of this group failed, however; in , California Governor Hiram Johnson signed a bill prohibiting the use of slot machines throughout the state. The bill effectively consigned all slot machines to the junk pile. In response, Fey cached numerous slot machines in his home on Broderick Street and relocated to Chicago, which replaced San Francisco as the capital of the slot machine industry.[30]

Fey found work in Chicago as a developer for the John Watlings Scale Company. It was not an unnatural move for someone with Fey’s experience – in many early slot machines, the coins inserted by players fell onto an internal balance scale, and there was always a chance that they would tip the scale and cause other coins to spill out. During Fey’s tenure, the Watlings Company started producing so-called Fey Scales and, inspired by that success, Fey decided to start manufacturing scales on his own. In , he opened Pacific Scale Works with William F. Schmidt in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.[31] Schmidt, the son of German immigrants from Baden, had been granted a patent for a merry-go-round-style “amusement device” back in At the time his patent application was filed (April 6, ), he was listed as a resident of Chicago. Thus, it would appear that Fey met Schmidt in Chicago, and that the two decided to move to Wisconsin to found Pacific Scale Works, which operated there until In , the same year Pacific Scale Works was founded, Fey filed a patent application for a coin-operated weighing scale. The patent was granted on November 4, The following year, Fey and his son, Edmund, returned to San Francisco to found Charles Fey & Company Weighing Scales on Mission Street. In , after the end of World War I, the company was renamed Charles Fey & Son. Edmund, who had just returned from the war, took over its management.[32]

The Start of Prohibition

Like the anti-gambling movement, the prohibition movement had a significant impact on broad areas of public life, especially ones that were critical to Fey’s business. This time, however, it was not the machines themselves that were at the center of the debate, but rather the saloons in which they were located. Political enthusiasm for prohibition had already been building in the lead up to America’s entry into World War I in April , and the start of the war brought renewed calls to end the waste of grain in the production of alcoholic beverages. Much of the increased hostility was directed toward German-American brewers, who, according to the Anti-Saloon League, “have rendered thousands of men inefficient and are thus crippling the Republic in its war on Prussian militarism.”[33] On August 1, , the United States Senate paved the way for the passage of the 18th Amendment, which, as stipulated by the War Prohibition Act (or Volstead Act) of November , outlawed the manufacture, distribution, sale, and use of alcohol. The amendment took effect on January 16,

With the closure of legal saloons across the nation, their illegal counterpart, known as the “speakeasy,” cropped up almost everywhere. Fortunately for men like Fey, speakeasies often boasted a generous line-up of slot machines. Proprietors were eager to have them in their establishments, not least because they provided an essential source of revenue in uncertain times. During the Prohibition Era, slot machines were mainly operated as vending machines for gum, candy, and especially mint, which had a relatively long shelf life. Manufacturers replaced card symbols on reels with fruit symbols, and payout was either directly in merchandise or in trade checks or tokens.

Despite visible policy efforts to condemn slot machines, which were widely associated with vice, corruption, and organized crime, the Roaring Twenties brought greater demand for slot machines and an accompanying boom in the industry. And despite the best efforts of politicians and lawmakers, this growth trend continued into the early years of the Great Depression. In , New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia personally presided over the dumping of almost 1, slot machines into the ocean, while the future Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren, then District Attorney of Alameda County, California, attempted to ban slot machines and prosecute those buying, selling, and using them. In , the police raided Fey’s factory, seizing between and machines. None of this, however, could change the fact that people simply wanted an inexpensive escape from bleak times, and that they found it with a penny’s play at games of chance and skill. In , when the national unemployment rate stood at 25%, small coins totaling $ million ($ billion in ) found their way into slot machines nationwide. Consequently, sales of slot machines reached record levels.

Throughout the years, Fey continued to innovate: in , for example, he became the first slot machine manufacturer to modify a standard three-reel, nickel slot machine in such a way that it accepted a large silver dollar coin.[34] Though he remained an industry innovator, he was no longer an industry leader. That title belonged to Mills Novelty, the dominant firm in the slot machine industry for some sixty years. Other industry leaders included Caille Brothers Manufacturing Company, Watling Manufacturing Company, and O.D. Jennings. In the mids, pinball maker Ray Moloney joined the ranks of the slot machine manufacturers; his Bally Manufacturing Co. eventually replaced Mills Novelty as the industry leader. In , Fey’s company incorporated as Charles Fey Manufacturing, with Charles Fey as president, Edmund Fey as vice president, and Fey’s long-time employee Albert Quast as secretary-treasurer. On January 28, , five days short of his 82nd birthday, Charles Fey retired.[35] He sold his company to Quast. Ten months later, on November 4, , he died of pneumonia in San Francisco, California.

Social Status, Family, and Personality

It is difficult to arrive at any assessment of Fey’s personality and private life. It would appear, however, that his personal interests and hobbies were entirely synonymous with the design and building of slot machines. In this respect, his personal and business interests were one and the same. In terms of social status, it is difficult to compare Fey with other German-born entrepreneurs who made their marks, and their fortunes, in industries such as banking or retailing. For most of Fey’s career, the inventions and products that he was known for – i.e. slot machines – were either outright illegal or associated with myriad vices, including alcohol, tobacco, and loose morals. At a time when the anti-gambling movement, the Anti-Saloon League, and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union were gaining strength, Fey’s profession would not have won him the respect of his upstanding middle-class peers; nor would it have put him in particularly good stead in San Francisco society. Indeed, aside from a brief notice that his daughters Alma and Elsie attended a “linen party” for a “Miss Georgia Farhner,”[36] there is virtually no mention of Fey or his family in the city newspaper, The San Francisco Call, between and , the year he left for Chicago.[37] There is also no indication that he sat on the boards of various organizations, donated to charitable causes, or participated in genteel events with other business owners and men of means. Rather, he appears to have operated in a very different world: the rough-and-tumble world of gambling, saloons, and cigar shops. But within this world and during this time (which one author aptly described as “straightforward man-to-man days”[38]), Fey seems to have commanded the respect of his peers. Apparently, after deconstructing one of Fey’s Liberty Bell machines, his competitor Herbert Mills could only marvel at the compact size of the internal gambling device.[39] Decades later, Fey still enjoyed the esteem of both friends and competitors alike – in , for example, the National Association of Coin-Operated Machine Manufacturers honored Fey’s “Golden Anniversary” in the industry at their annual convention. On that same occasion, his friend and competitor, Joe Huber, President of Huber Coin Machine Sales Company, took out an advertisement in which he wished Fey well and offered his warmest congratulations. Huber’s message, “We all love Charlie – Who in the hell doesn’t,” at once conveyed both the masculine bravado of the industry as a whole and the affection its members shared for Fey.

Today, Fey’s legacy is advanced mostly by his grandsons Marshall (born ) and Franklin (born ) Fey. Marshall Fey is the author of numerous publications on his grandfather and the slot machine industry in general, some of which were sources for the present article. From until , Marshall and Franklin Fey operated the Liberty Belle Restaurant and Saloon in Reno, Nevada. There, in addition to dining, patrons could view the brothers’ slot machine collection, which was considered by many to be the finest in the world. When the restaurant closed in , the bulk of the Feys’ collection was sold at auction. The brothers did, however, keep twenty-nine unique slot machines, which they offered on loan to the Nevada State Museum.[40]

Immigrant Entrepreneurship

By the time Fey arrived in America, he had already worked for three different instrument manufacturers in three different European countries: first, he had worked for the Munich Plow Company, then for an intercom equipment manufacturer in Amiens, France, and finally in the nautical instruments department of a London shipyard. These positions helped Fey acquire technical know-how that he eventually put to good use in the development of the slot machine. Additionally, Fey’s relatively long stay in London – he was there for five years – allowed him to save a bit of money and to acquire the English language skills required to succeed in America. Thus, he arrived in the U.S. in a relatively fortunate position. Moreover, he also had the benefit of having a close relative – in his case, his mother’s brother – who had already immigrated to the United States. Like many newly arrived immigrants, Fey took advantage of his family ties and lived with his uncle during his first months in America.

While it is difficult to gauge the extent to which Fey benefitted from ethnic networks, it is telling that he married the daughter of two German immigrants. Furthermore, it is significant that his father-in-law, Christian Volkmar, ran a cigar business, for many slot machines were located on the counters of cigar shops. This being the case, it is conceivable that Christian Volkmar may have put one of Fey’s early machines in his own shop or used his network of contacts to find other proprietors who were willing to do so. Since Volkmar died in , any assistance he may have given Fey would have been limited to the very earliest period of his career – the years – but this would have been precisely the time when Fey’s fledging business needed help the most.

It is also worth mentioning that Fey’s business associates were, without exception, either German immigrants or Americans of German descent. Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Schultze, who was Fey’s colleague at California Electric Works and then his slot machine competitor, was a first generation German immigrant, as was Fey’s first business partner Theodor Holtz. William F. Schmidt, Fey’s partner in the Wisconsin-based Pacific Scale Works, was a second generation German immigrant, and Albert Quast, Fey’s long-time foreman and eventual successor as owner of Charles Fey Manufacturing, was an American of German descent.

It is unclear when, or even whether, Fey became a naturalized U.S. citizen. According to the U.S. Census, Fey arrived in and was a naturalized citizen.[41] But in his September 26, , patent application for a coin-operated weighing scale, Fey identified himself as “Charles August Fey, a subject of the Emperor of Germany, residing at Fond du Lac, in the county of Fond du Lac and [the] State of Wisconsin.”

Conclusion

In , twenty-three-year old German immigrant Charles August Fey arrived in San Francisco, then the capital of the nation’s coin-machine industry. Over the course of a successful career that extended into the s, Fey made significant contributions to the development of America’s gaming industry. He is remembered today as the creator of the modern slot machine and as the “Thomas Edison of slots.”[42] Fey’s success was largely attributable to his keen business sense and strong technical know-how. Just as important, however, was his ability to continually respond to changes and challenges – whether they took the form of industry competitors, the San Francisco earthquake of , or the rise of the anti-gambling movement. In the absence of copyright protection for his inventions, Fey kept a close watch on his slot machines, never selling or even leasing them, but rather installing them in saloons and other establishments on the basis of a 50/50 revenue sharing agreement with proprietors. This business model proved sound and eventually allowed Fey to expand throughout the San Francisco Bay area. Although Fey enjoyed success beyond the confines of San Francisco – and even worked in Chicago and founded a company in Wisconsin – he always remained loyal to the city of immigrants, risk takers, and fortune seekers that had given him his first start. Today, Charles August Fey and his famous Liberty Bell slot machine are commemorated by a plaque on San Francisco’s Crown-Zellerbach building, which sits in the spot once occupied by his workshop at Market Street.

Notes

[1] The authors like to thank the following organizations or individuals for their generous support: the Cameron University Academic Research Support Center, the Nevada State Museum, Stadt Vöhringen in Germany, Alvis E. Hendley, NoeHill, and Marshall Fey.

[2] Alois Schmid, “Maximilian III. Joseph,” in Neue Deutsche Biographie 16 (), (accessed on October 15, ).

[4] Gerhard Reiter, Geschichte im Landkreis Neu-Ulm (Vöhringen: Stadt Vöhringen, ),

[5] Marshall Fey, Slot Machines: America’s Favorite Gaming Device, 6th ed. (Reno, NV: Liberty Belle Books, ), ; “Slot Machines History: Who Is Charles Fey?” (), (accessed on October 17, ); Reiter, Geschichte im Landkreis Neu-Ulm,.

[6] Peter Tamony, “The One-Armed Bandit,” Western Folklore 27 (April ):

[7] This information comes from the San Francisco City Directory for .

[8] Fey, Slot Machines: America’s Favorite Gaming Device, ; Reiter, Geschichte im Landkreis Neu-Ulm, ; Tamony, “The One-Armed Bandit,”

[10] Marshall Fey, Slot Machines: A Pictorial History of the First Years (Reno, NV: Liberty Belle Books, ), ; Reiter, Geschichte im Landkreis Neu-Ulm,

[11] Holtz also founded his own company, Novelty Machine Works. A short advertisement for his company appeared in The San Francisco Call on May 29, The advertisement read: INVENTION models, special tools, punches and dies: small articles manufactured at Novelty Machine Works, Jessie St, near Fourth.

[12] Marshall Fey, “Charles Fey and San Francisco’s Liberty Bell Slot Machine,” California Historical Quarterly 54 (Spring ):

[13] Mark Dickerson and John O’Connor, Gambling as an Addictive Behaviour (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, ), p. 5.

[14] Don Catlin, “Piece of History: It All Began with the Fey Family in the Late s,” Strictly Slots (March ): ; Fey, Slot Machines: America’s Favorite Gaming Device, 40; and Howard Herz, “End of an Era: The Liberty Belle,” Casino Chip and Token News (Spring ):

[15] Fey, “Charles Fey and San Francisco’s Liberty Bell Slot Machine,” 57; and Edwin Silberstang, The Winner’s Guide to Casino Gambling (New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, ),

[16] Tamony, “The One-Armed Bandit,”

[17] Catlin, “Piece of History,”

[18] Fey, “Charles Fey and San Francisco’s Liberty Bell Slot Machine,”

[19] See, Schultze v. Holtz et al., decided August 23, , in Decisions of the Commissioner of Patents and of United States Courts in Patent Cases, . Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, , pp. For more on this subject, see “Didn’t Patent It,” Deming Examiner, New Mexico (October ): 3; William N. Thompson, Gambling in America: An Encyclopedia of History, Issues, and Society (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, ),

[20] Fey, Slot Machines: America’s Favorite Gaming Device, 41; Fey, “Charles Fey and San Francisco’s Liberty Bell Slot Machine,”

[21] Tamony, “The One-Armed Bandit,”

[22] Catlin, “Piece of History,” 22; Fey, Slot Machines: America’s Favorite Gaming Device, ; and Frank Scoblete, Break the One-Armed Bandits: How to Come out Ahead When You Play the Slots (Chicago, IL: Bonus Books, ),

[23] Fey, Slot Machines: America’s Favorite Gaming Device,

[24] Rufus King, “The Rise and Decline of Coin-Machine Gambling,” The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science 55 (June ):

[25] Marfels, “Slot Machine Play in America,”

[26] All current values (in USD) are based on Samuel H. Williamson, &#;Seven Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, to present,&#; MeasuringWorth, , using the Consumer Price Index.

[27] “Slot Machine Men Toss up the Sponge,” The San Francisco Call, February 26, , p.

[30] Roger Dunstan, Gambling in California (California State Library: California Research Bureau, January ); Scoblete, Break the One-Armed Bandits, ; and Tamony, “The One-Armed Bandit,”

[31] Fey may have had some connections in Wisconsin; some scholars have suggested that he made a brief stop in Wisconsin during his journey from New Jersey to California. See Tamony, “The One-Armed Bandit,” p. ; and Coin Machine Review (January ).

[33] Lynn Dumeni, The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the s (New York, NY: Hill and Wang, ),

[35] Fey, Slot Machines: America’s Favorite Gaming Device,

[36]The San Francisco Call, April 9,

[37] One exception, of course, being the aforementioned article in which Fey was accused of being involved with a fund to defeat the anti-gambling bill before the California legislature. This, however, was not exactly positive press. “Slot Machine Men Toss up the Sponge,” The San Francisco Call, February 26, , p.

[38] Tamony, “The One-Armed Bandit,”

[39] Fey, “Charles Fey and San Francisco’s Liberty Bell Slot Machine,”

[40] “Slot Machines: The Fey Collection on Exhibit at Nevada State Museum,” Nevada State Museums Newsletter, Volume XXXVII, Number 1 (February )

[41] www.enthralaviation.com United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: www.enthralaviation.com Operations Inc, Source Citation: Year:;Census Place:San Francisco Assembly District 38,San Francisco,California;Roll:T_99;Page:4A;Enumeration District:;Image:;FHL microfilm:.

[42] He was proclaimed the “Thomas Edison of Slots” by his industry peers at the convention of the National Association of Coin Operated Machine Manufacturers.

Citation Information

The following information is provided for citations.

Article TitleCharles August Fey
Coverage
AuthorTony Wohlers
AuthorEric Schmaltz
Website NameImmigrant Entreprenuership
URLwww.enthralaviation.com
Access DateMarch 13,
PublisherGerman Historical Institute
Original Published DateJune 8,
Date of Last UpdateAugust 22,

Источник: [www.enthralaviation.com]

Slot machine

Casino gambling machine

"One-Armed Bandit", "Slot Machine", "Fruit machine", and "Pokies" redirect here. For the album, see One-Armed Bandit (album). For the band, see Slot Machine (band). For other uses, see Fruit machine (disambiguation) and Pokey (disambiguation).

Row of digital-based slot machines inside a casino in Las Vegas

A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively as one-armed bandits because of the large mechanical levers affixed to the sides of early mechanical machines and the games' ability to empty players' pockets and wallets as thieves would.^[1]

A slot machine's standard layout features a screen displaying three or more reels that "spin" when the game is activated. Some modern slot machines still include a lever as a skeuomorphic design trait to trigger play. However, the mechanics of early machines have been superseded by random number generators, and most are now operated using buttons and touchscreens.

Slot machines include one or more currency detectors that validate the form of payment, whether coin, cash, voucher, or token. The machine pays out according to the pattern of symbols displayed when the reels stop "spinning". Slot machines are the most popular gambling method in casinos and constitute about 70% of the average U.S. casino's income.^[2]

Digital technology has resulted in variations on the original slot machine concept. As the player is essentially playing a video game, manufacturers are able to offer more interactive elements, such as advanced bonus rounds and more varied video graphics.

Etymology[edit]

The "slot machine" term derives from the slots on the machine for inserting and retrieving coins.^[3] "Fruit machine" comes from the traditional fruit images on the spinning reels such as lemons and cherries.^[4]

History[edit]

"Liberty Bell" machine, manufactured by Charles Fey.

Sittman and Pitt of Brooklyn, New York developed a gambling machine in that was a precursor to the modern slot machine. It contained five drums holding a total of 50 card faces and was based on poker. The machine proved extremely popular, and soon many bars in the city had one or more of them. Players would insert a nickel and pull a lever, which would spin the drums and the cards that they held, the player hoping for a good poker hand. There was no direct payout mechanism, so a pair of kings might get the player a free beer, whereas a royal flush could pay out cigars or drinks; the prizes were wholly dependent upon what the establishment would offer. To improve the odds for the house, two cards were typically removed from the deck, the ten of spades and the jack of hearts, doubling the odds against winning a royal flush. The drums could also be rearranged to further reduce a player's chance of winning.

Because of the vast number of possible wins in the original poker-based game, it proved practically impossible to make a machine capable of awarding an automatic payout for all possible winning combinations. At some time between and ,^[5]Charles Fey of San Francisco, California devised a much simpler automatic mechanism^[6] with three spinning reels containing a total of five symbols: horseshoes, diamonds, spades, hearts and a Liberty Bell; the bell gave the machine its name. By replacing ten cards with five symbols and using three reels instead of five drums, the complexity of reading a win was considerably reduced, allowing Fey to design an effective automatic payout mechanism. Three bells in a row produced the biggest payoff, ten nickels (50¢). Liberty Bell was a huge success and spawned a thriving mechanical gaming device industry. After a few years, the devices were banned in California, but Fey still could not keep up with the demand for them from elsewhere. The Liberty Bell machine was so popular that it was copied by many slot-machine manufacturers. The first of these, also called the "Liberty Bell", was produced by the manufacturer Herbert Mills in By , many "bell" machines had been installed in most cigar stores, saloons, bowling alleys, brothels and barber shops.^[7] Early machines, including an Liberty Bell, are now part of the Nevada State Museum's Fey Collection.^[8]

The first Liberty Bell machines produced by Mills used the same symbols on the reels as did Charles Fey's original. Soon afterward, another version was produced with patriotic symbols, such as flags and wreaths, on the wheels. Later, a similar machine called the Operator's Bell was produced that included the option of adding a gum-vending attachment. As the gum offered was fruit-flavored, fruit symbols were placed on the reels: lemons, cherries, oranges and plums. A bell was retained, and a picture of a stick of Bell-Fruit Gum, the origin of the bar symbol, was also present. This set of symbols proved highly popular and was used by other companies that began to make their own slot machines: Caille, Watling, Jennings and Pace.^[9]

A commonly used technique to avoid gambling laws in a number of states was to award food prizes. For this reason, a number of gumball and other vending machines were regarded with mistrust by the courts. The two Iowa cases of State v. Ellis^[10] and State v. Striggles^[11] are both used in criminal law classes to illustrate the concept of reliance upon authority as it relates to the axiomatic ignorantia juris non excusat ("ignorance of the law is no excuse").^[12] In these cases, a mint vending machine was declared to be a gambling device because the machine would, by internally manufactured chance, occasionally give the next user a number of tokens exchangeable for more candy. Despite the display of the result of the next use on the machine, the courts ruled that "[t]he machine appealed to the player's propensity to gamble, and that is [a] vice."^[13]

In , Bally developed the first fully electromechanical slot machine called Money Honey (although earlier machines such as Bally's High Hand draw-poker machine had exhibited the basics of electromechanical construction as early as ). Its electromechanical workings made Money Honey the first slot machine with a bottomless hopper and automatic payout of up to coins without the help of an attendant.^[14] The popularity of this machine led to the increasing predominance of electronic games, with the side lever soon becoming vestigial.

The first video slot machine was developed in in Kearny Mesa, California by the Las Vegas–based Fortune Coin Co. This machine used a modified inch (48&#;cm) Sony Trinitron color receiver for the display and logic boards for all slot-machine functions. The prototype was mounted in a full-size, show-ready slot-machine cabinet. The first production units went on trial at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel. After some modifications to defeat cheating attempts, the video slot machine was approved by the Nevada State Gaming Commission and eventually found popularity on the Las Vegas Strip and in downtown casinos. Fortune Coin Co. and its video slot-machine technology were purchased by IGT (International Gaming Technology) in ^{[citation needed]}

The first American video slot machine to offer a "second screen" bonus round was Reel ’Em In, developed by WMS Industries in ^[15] This type of machine had appeared in Australia from at least with the Three Bags Full game.^[16] With this type of machine, the display changes to provide a different game in which an additional payout may be awarded.

Operation[edit]

RAY's Ruusu and Tuplapotti slot machines in Finland

Depending on the machine, the player can insert cash or, in "ticket-in, ticket-out" machines, a paper ticket with a barcode, into a designated slot on the machine. The machine is then activated by means of a lever or button (either physical or on a touchscreen), which activates reels that spin and stop to rearrange the symbols. If a player matches a winning combination of symbols, the player earns credits based on the paytable. Symbols vary depending on the theme of the machine. Classic symbols include objects such as fruits, bells, and stylized lucky sevens. Most slot games have a theme, such as a specific aesthetic, location, or character. Symbols and other bonus features of the game are typically aligned with the theme. Some themes are licensed from popular media franchises, including films, television series (including game shows such as Wheel of Fortune), entertainers, and musicians.

Multi-line slot machines have become more popular since the s. These machines have more than one payline, meaning that visible symbols that are not aligned on the main horizontal may be considered as winning combinations. Traditional three-reel slot machines commonly have one, three, or five paylines while video slot machines may have 9, 15, 25, or as many as different paylines. Most accept variable numbers of credits to play, with 1 to 15 credits per line being typical. The higher the amount bet, the higher the payout will be if the player wins.

One of the main differences between video slot machines and reel machines is in the way payouts are calculated. With reel machines, the only way to win the maximum jackpot is to play the maximum number of coins (usually three, sometimes four or even five coins per spin). With video machines, the fixed payout values are multiplied by the number of coins per line that is being bet. In other words: on a reel machine, the odds are more favorable if the gambler plays with the maximum number of coins available.^[17] However, depending on the structure of the game and its bonus features, some video slots may still include features that improve chances at payouts by making increased wagers.

"Multi-way" games eschew fixed paylines in favor of allowing symbols to pay anywhere, as long as there is at least one in at least three consecutive reels from left to right. Multi-way games may be configured to allow players to bet by-reel: for example, on a game with a 3x5 pattern (often referred to as a way game), playing one reel allows all three symbols in the first reel to potentially pay, but only the center row pays on the remaining reels (often designated by darkening the unused portions of the reels). Other multi-way games use a 4x5 or 5x5 pattern, where there are up to five symbols in each reel, allowing for up to 1, and 3, ways to win respectively. The Australian manufacturer Aristocrat Leisure brands games featuring this system as "Reel Power", "Xtra Reel Power" and "Super Reel Power" respectively. A variation involves patterns where symbols pay adjacent to one another. Most of these games have a hexagonal reel formation, and much like multi-way games, any patterns not played are darkened out of use.

Denominations can range from 1 cent ("penny slots") all the way up to $ or more per credit. The latter are typically known as "high limit" machines, and machines configured to allow for such wagers are often located in dedicated areas (which may have a separate team of attendants to cater to the needs of those who play there). The machine automatically calculates the number of credits the player receives in exchange for the cash inserted. Newer machines often allow players to choose from a selection of denominations on a splash screen or menu.

Terminology[edit]

A bonus is a special feature of the particular game theme, which is activated when certain symbols appear in a winning combination. Bonuses and the number of bonus features vary depending upon the game. Some bonus rounds are a special session of free spins (the number of which is often based on the winning combination that triggers the bonus), often with a different or modified set of winning combinations as the main game and/or other multipliers or increased frequencies of symbols, or a "hold and re-spin" mechanic in which specific symbols (usually marked with values of credits or other prizes) are collected and locked in place over a finite number of spins. In other bonus rounds, the player is presented with several items on a screen from which to choose. As the player chooses items, a number of credits is revealed and awarded. Some bonuses use a mechanical device, such as a spinning wheel, that works in conjunction with the bonus to display the amount won.

A candle is a light on top of the slot machine. It flashes to alert the operator that change is needed, hand pay is requested or a potential problem with the machine. It can be lit by the player by pressing the "service" or "help" button.

Carousel refers to a grouping of slot machines, usually in a circle or oval formation.

A coin hopper is a container where the coins that are immediately available for payouts are held. The hopper is a mechanical device that rotates coins into the coin tray when a player collects credits/coins (by pressing a "Cash Out" button). When a certain preset coin capacity is reached, a coin diverter automatically redirects, or "drops", excess coins into a "drop bucket" or "drop box". (Unused coin hoppers can still be found even on games that exclusively employ Ticket-In, Ticket-Out technology, as a vestige.)

The credit meter is a display of the amount of money or number of credits on the machine. On mechanical slot machines, this is usually a seven-segment display, but video slot machines typically use stylized text that suits the game's theme and user interface.

The drop bucket or drop box is a container located in a slot machine's base where excess coins are diverted from the hopper. Typically, a drop bucket is used for low-denomination slot machines and a drop box is used for high-denomination slot machines. A drop box contains a hinged lid with one or more locks whereas a drop bucket does not contain a lid. The contents of drop buckets and drop boxes are collected and counted by the casino on a scheduled basis.

EGM is short for "Electronic Gaming Machine".

Free spins are a common form of bonus, where a series of spins are automatically played at no charge at the player's current wager. Free spins are usually triggered via a scatter of at least three designated symbols (with the number of spins dependent on the number of symbols that land). Some games allow the free spins bonus to "retrigger", which adds additional spins on top of those already awarded. There is no theoretical limit to the number of free spins obtainable. Some games may have other features that can also trigger over the course of free spins.

A hand pay refers to a payout made by an attendant or at an exchange point ("cage"), rather than by the slot machine itself. A hand pay occurs when the amount of the payout exceeds the maximum amount that was preset by the slot machine's operator. Usually, the maximum amount is set at the level where the operator must begin to deduct taxes. A hand pay could also be necessary as a result of a short pay.

Hopper fill slip is a document used to record the replenishment of the coin in the coin hopper after it becomes depleted as a result of making payouts to players. The slip indicates the amount of coin placed into the hoppers, as well as the signatures of the employees involved in the transaction, the slot machine number and the location and the date.

MEAL book (Machine entry authorization log) is a log of the employee's entries into the machine.

Low-level or slant-top slot machines include a stool so the player may sit down. Stand-up or upright slot machines are played while standing.

Optimal play is a payback percentage based on a gambler using the optimal strategy in a skill-based slot machine game.

Payline is a line that crosses through one symbol on each reel, along which a winning combination is evaluated. Classic spinning reel machines usually have up to nine paylines, while video slot machines may have as many as one hundred. Paylines could be of various shapes (horizontal, vertical, oblique, triangular, zigzag, etc.)

Persistent state refers to passive features on some slot machines, some of which able to trigger bonus payouts or other special features if certain conditions are met over time by players on that machine.^[18]

Roll-up is the process of dramatizing a win by playing sounds while the meters count up to the amount that has been won.

Short pay refers to a partial payout made by a slot machine, which is less than the amount due to the player. This occurs if the coin hopper has been depleted as a result of making earlier payouts to players. The remaining amount due to the player is either paid as a hand pay or an attendant will come and refill the machine.

A scatter is a pay combination based on occurrences of a designated symbol landing anywhere on the reels, rather than falling in sequence on the same payline. A scatter pay usually requires a minimum of three symbols to land, and the machine may offer increased prizes or jackpots depending on the number that land. Scatters are frequently used to trigger bonus games, such as free spins (with the number of spins multiplying based on the number of scatter symbols that land). The scatter symbol usually cannot be matched using wilds, and some games may require the scatter symbols to appear on consecutive reels in order to pay. On some multiway games, scatter symbols still pay in unused areas.

Taste is a reference to the small amount often paid out to keep a player seated and continuously betting. Only rarely will machines fail to pay even the minimum out over the course of several pulls.

Display screen of a slot machine in tilt mode

Tilt is a term derived from electromechanical slot machines' "tilt switches", which would make or break a circuit when they were tilted or otherwise tampered with that triggered an alarm. While modern machines no longer have tilt switches, any kind of technical fault (door switch in the wrong state, reel motor failure, out of paper, etc.) is still called a "tilt".

A theoretical hold worksheet is a document provided by the manufacturer for every slot machine that indicates the theoretical percentage the machine should hold based on the amount paid in. The worksheet also indicates the reel strip settings, number of coins that may be played, the payout schedule, the number of reels and other information descriptive of the particular type of slot machine.

Volatility or variance refers to the measure of risk associated with playing a slot machine. A low-volatility slot machine has regular but smaller wins, while a high-variance slot machine has fewer but bigger wins.

Weight count is an American term referring to the total value of coins or tokens removed from a slot machine's drop bucket or drop box for counting by the casino's hard count team through the use of a weigh scale.

Wild symbols substitute for most other symbols in the game (similarly to a joker card), usually excluding scatter and jackpot symbols (or offering a lower prize on non-natural combinations that include wilds). How jokers behave are dependent on the specific game and whether the player is in a bonus or free games mode. Sometimes wild symbols may only appear on certain reels, or have a chance to "stack" across the entire reel.

Pay table[edit]

Main article: Pay table

Each machine has a table that lists the number of credits the player will receive if the symbols listed on the pay table line up on the pay line of the machine. Some symbols are wild and can represent many, or all, of the other symbols to complete a winning line. Especially on older machines, the pay table is listed on the face of the machine, usually above and below the area containing the wheels. On video slot machines, they are usually contained within a help menu, along with information on other features.

Technology[edit]

Reels[edit]

Historically, all slot machines used revolving mechanical reels to display and determine results. Although the original slot machine used five reels, simpler, and therefore more reliable, three reel machines quickly became the standard.

A problem with three reel machines is that the number of combinations is only cubic &#; the original slot machine with three physical reels and 10 symbols on each reel had only 10³ = 1, possible combinations. This limited the manufacturer's ability to offer large jackpots since even the rarest event had a likelihood of %. The maximum theoretical payout, assuming % return to player would be times the bet, but that would leave no room for other pays, making the machine very high risk, and also quite boring.

Although the number of symbols eventually increased to about 22, allowing 10, combinations,^[19] this still limited jackpot sizes as well as the number of possible outcomes.

In the s, however, slot machine manufacturers incorporated electronics into their products and programmed them to weight particular symbols. Thus the odds of losing symbols appearing on the payline became disproportionate to their actual frequency on the physical reel. A symbol would only appear once on the reel displayed to the player, but could, in fact, occupy several stops on the multiple reel.

In , Inge Telnaes received a patent for a device titled, "Electronic Gaming Device Utilizing a Random Number Generator for Selecting the Reel Stop Positions" (US Patent ),^[20] which states: "It is important to make a machine that is perceived to present greater chances of payoff than it actually has within the legal limitations that games of chance must operate."^[21] The patent was later bought by International Game Technology and has since expired.

A virtual reel that has virtual stops per reel would allow up to ³ = 16,, final positions. The manufacturer could choose to offer a $1 million jackpot on a $1 bet, confident that it will only happen, over the long term, once every million plays.

Computerization[edit]

With microprocessors now ubiquitous, the computers inside modern slot machines allow manufacturers to assign a different probability to every symbol on every reel. To the player, it might appear that a winning symbol was "so close", whereas in fact the probability is much lower.

In the s in the U.K., machines embodying microprocessors became common. These used a number of features to ensure the payout was controlled within the limits of the gambling legislation. As a coin was inserted into the machine, it could go either directly into the cashbox for the benefit of the owner or into a channel that formed the payout reservoir, with the microprocessor monitoring the number of coins in this channel. The drums themselves were driven by stepper motors, controlled by the processor and with proximity sensors monitoring the position of the drums. A "look-up table" within the software allows the processor to know what symbols were being displayed on the drums to the gambler. This allowed the system to control the level of payout by stopping the drums at positions it had determined. If the payout channel had filled up, the payout became more generous; if nearly empty, the payout became less so (thus giving good control of the odds).

Video slot machines[edit]

Video slot machines do not use mechanical reels, but use graphical reels on a computerized display. As there are no mechanical constraints on the design of video slot machines, games often use at least five reels, and may also use non-standard layouts. This greatly expands the number of possibilities: a machine can have 50 or more symbols on a reel, giving odds as high as million to 1 against &#; enough for even the largest jackpot. As there are so many combinations possible with five reels, manufacturers do not need to weight the payout symbols (although some may still do so). Instead, higher paying symbols will typically appear only once or twice on each reel, while more common symbols earning a more frequent payout will appear many times. Video slot machines usually make more extensive use of multimedia, and can feature more elaborate minigames as bonuses. Modern cabinets typically use flat-panel displays, but cabinets using larger curved screens (which can provide a more immersive experience for the player) are not uncommon.^[22]

Video slot machines typically encourage the player to play multiple "lines": rather than simply taking the middle of the three symbols displayed on each reel, a line could go from top left to the bottom right or any other pattern specified by the manufacturer. As each symbol is equally likely, there is no difficulty for the manufacturer in allowing the player to take as many of the possible lines on offer as desire &#; the long-term return to the player will be the same. The difference for the player is that the more lines they play, the more likely they are to get paid on a given spin (because they are betting more).

To avoid seeming as if the player's money is simply ebbing away (whereas a payout of credits on a single-line machine would be bets and the player would feel they had made a substantial win, on a line machine, it would only be five bets and not seem as significant), manufacturers commonly offer bonus games, which can return many times their bet. The player is encouraged to keep playing to reach the bonus: even if they are losing, the bonus game could allow them to win back their losses.

Random number generators[edit]

All modern machines are designed using pseudorandom number generators ("PRNGs"), which are constantly generating a sequence of simulated random numbers, at a rate of hundreds or perhaps thousands per second. As soon as the "Play" button is pressed, the most recent random number is used to determine the result. This means that the result varies depending on exactly when the game is played. A fraction of a second earlier or later and the result would be different.

It is important that the machine contains a high-quality RNG implementation. Because all PRNGs must eventually repeat their number sequence^[23] and, if the period is short or the PRNG is otherwise flawed, an advanced player may be able to "predict" the next result. Having access to the PRNG code and seed values, Ronald Dale Harris, a former slot machine programmer, discovered equations for specific gambling games like Keno that allowed him to predict what the next set of selected numbers would be based on the previous games played.

Most machines are designed to defeat this by generating numbers even when the machine is not being played so the player cannot tell where in the sequence they are, even if they know how the machine was programmed.

Payout percentage[edit]

Slot machines are typically programmed to pay out as winnings 0% to 99% of the money that is wagered by players. This is known as the "theoretical payout percentage" or RTP, "return to player". The minimum theoretical payout percentage varies among jurisdictions and is typically established by law or regulation. For example, the minimum payout in Nevada is 75%, in New Jersey 83%, and in Mississippi 80%. The winning patterns on slot machines &#; the amounts they pay and the frequencies of those payouts &#; are carefully selected to yield a certain fraction of the money paid to the "house" (the operator of the slot machine) while returning the rest to the players during play. Suppose that a certain slot machine costs $1 per spin and has a return to player (RTP) of 95%. It can be calculated that, over a sufficiently long period such as 1,, spins, the machine will return an average of $, to its players, who have inserted $1,, during that time. In this (simplified) example, the slot machine is said to pay out 95%. The operator keeps the remaining $50, Within some EGM development organizations this concept is referred to simply as "par". "Par" also manifests itself to gamblers as promotional techniques: "Our 'Loose Slots' have a 93% payback! Play now!"^{[citation needed]}

A slot machine's theoretical payout percentage is set at the factory when the software is written. Changing the payout percentage after a slot machine has been placed on the gaming floor requires a physical swap of the software or firmware, which is usually stored on an EPROM but may be loaded onto non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) or even stored on CD-ROM or DVD, depending on the capabilities of the machine and the applicable regulations. Based on current technology, this is a time-consuming process and as such is done infrequently.^{[citation needed]} In certain jurisdictions, such as New Jersey, the EPROM has a tamper-evidentseal and can only be changed in the presence of Gaming Control Board officials. Other jurisdictions, including Nevada, randomly audit slot machines to ensure that they contain only approved software.

Historically, many casinos, both online and offline, have been unwilling to publish individual game RTP figures, making it impossible for the player to know whether they are playing a "loose" or a "tight" game. Since the turn of the century, some information regarding these figures has started to come into the public domain either through various casinos releasing them—primarily this applies to online casinos—or through studies by independent gambling authorities.^{[citation needed]}

The return to player is not the only statistic that is of interest. The probabilities of every payout on the pay table is also critical. For example, consider a hypothetical slot machine with a dozen different values on the pay table. However, the probabilities of getting all the payouts are zero except the largest one. If the payout is 4, times the input amount, and it happens every 4, times on average, the return to player is exactly %, but the game would be dull to play. Also, most people would not win anything, and having entries on the paytable that have a return of zero would be deceptive. As these individual probabilities are closely guarded secrets, it is possible that the advertised machines with high return to player simply increase the probabilities of these jackpots. The casino could legally place machines of a similar style payout and advertise that some machines have % return to player. The added advantage is that these large jackpots increase the excitement of the other players.

The table of probabilities for a specific machine is called the Probability and Accounting Report or PAR sheet, also PARS commonly understood as Paytable and Reel Strips. Mathematician Michael Shackleford revealed the PARS for one commercial slot machine, an original International Gaming TechnologyRed White and Blue machine. This game, in its original form, is obsolete, so these specific probabilities do not apply. He only published the odds after a fan of his sent him some information provided on a slot machine that was posted on a machine in the Netherlands. The psychology of the machine design is quickly revealed. There are 13 possible payouts ranging from to 2, The payout comes every 8 plays. The payout comes every 33 plays, whereas the payout comes every plays. Most players assume the likelihood increases proportionate to the payout. The one mid-size payout that is designed to give the player a thrill is the payout. It is programmed to occur an average of once every plays. The payout is high enough to create excitement, but not high enough that it makes it likely that the player will take their winnings and abandon the game. More than likely the player began the game with at least 80 times his bet (for instance there are 80 quarters in $20). In contrast the payout occurs only on average of once every 6, plays. The highest payout of 2, occurs only on average of once every 64³ = , plays since the machine has 64 virtual stops. The player who continues to feed the machine is likely to have several mid-size payouts, but unlikely to have a large payout. He quits after he is bored or has exhausted his bankroll.^{[citation needed]}

Despite their confidentiality, occasionally a PAR sheet is posted on a website. They have limited value to the player, because usually a machine will have 8 to 12 different possible programs with varying payouts. In addition, slight variations of each machine (e.g., with double jackpots or five times play) are always being developed. The casino operator can choose which EPROM chip to install in any particular machine to select the payout desired. The result is that there is not really such a thing as a high payback type of machine, since every machine potentially has multiple settings. From October to February , columnist Michael Shackleford obtained PAR sheets for five different nickel machines; four IGT games Austin Powers, Fortune Cookie, Leopard Spots and Wheel of Fortune and one game manufactured by WMS; Reel 'em In. Without revealing the proprietary information, he developed a program that would allow him to determine with usually less than a dozen plays on each machine which EPROM chip was installed. Then he did a survey of over machines in 70 different casinos in Las Vegas. He averaged the data, and assigned an average payback percentage to the machines in each casino. The resultant list was widely publicized for marketing purposes (especially by the Palms casino which had the top ranking).^{[citation needed]}

One reason that the slot machine is so profitable to a casino is that the player must play the high house edge and high payout wagers along with the low house edge and low payout wagers. In a more traditional wagering game like craps, the player knows that certain wagers have almost a 50/50 chance of winning or losing, but they only pay a limited multiple of the original bet (usually no higher than three times). Other bets have a higher house edge, but the player is rewarded with a bigger win (up to thirty times in craps). The player can choose what kind of wager he wants to make. A slot machine does not afford such an opportunity. Theoretically, the operator could make these probabilities available, or allow the player to choose which one so that the player is free to make a choice. However, no operator has ever enacted this strategy. Different machines have different maximum payouts, but without knowing the odds of getting the jackpot, there is no rational way to differentiate.

In many markets where central monitoring and control systems are used to link machines for auditing and security purposes, usually in wide area networks of multiple venues and thousands of machines, player return must usually be changed from a central computer rather than at each machine. A range of percentages is set in the game software and selected remotely.

In , the Nevada Gaming Commission began working with Las Vegas casinos on technology that would allow the casino's management to change the game, the odds, and the payouts remotely. The change cannot be done instantaneously, but only after the selected machine has been idle for at least four minutes. After the change is made, the machine must be locked to new players for four minutes and display an on-screen message informing potential players that a change is being made.^[24]

Linked machines[edit]

Some varieties of slot machines can be linked together in a setup sometimes known as a "community" game. The most basic form of this setup involves progressive jackpots that are shared between the bank of machines, but may include multiplayer bonuses and other features.^[25]

In some cases multiple machines are linked across multiple casinos. In these cases, the machines may be owned by the manufacturer, who is responsible for paying the jackpot. The casinos lease the machines rather than owning them outright. Casinos in New Jersey, Nevada, and South Dakota now offer multi-state progressive jackpots, which now offer bigger jackpot pools.^[26]^[27]

Fraud[edit]

Mechanical slot machines and their coin acceptors were sometimes susceptible to cheating devices and other scams. One historical example involved spinning a coin with a short length of plastic wire. The weight and size of the coin would be accepted by the machine and credits would be granted. However, the spin created by the plastic wire would cause the coin to exit through the reject chute into the payout tray. This particular scam has become obsolete due to improvements in newer slot machines. Another obsolete method of defeating slot machines was to use a light source to confuse the optical sensor used to count coins during payout.^[28]

Modern slot machines are controlled by EPROM computer chips and, in large casinos, coin acceptors have become obsolete in favor of bill acceptors. These machines and their bill acceptors are designed with advanced anti-cheating and anti-counterfeiting measures and are difficult to defraud. Early computerized slot machines were sometimes defrauded through the use of cheating devices, such as the "slider", "monkey paw", "lightwand" and "the tongue". Many of these old cheating devices were made by the late Tommy Glenn Carmichael, a slot machine fraudster who reportedly stole over $5 million.^[29] In the modern day, computerized slot machines are fully deterministic and thus outcomes can be sometimes successfully predicted.^[30]

Skill stops[edit]

Skill stop buttons predated the Bally electromechanical slot machines of the s and s. They appeared on mechanical slot machines manufactured by Mills Novelty Co. as early as the mid s. These machines had modified reel-stop arms, which allowed them to be released from the timing bar, earlier than in a normal play, simply by pressing the buttons on the front of the machine, located between each reel.

"Skill stop" buttons were added to some slot machines by Zacharias Anthony in the early s. These enabled the player to stop each reel, allowing a degree of "skill" so as to satisfy the New Jersey gaming laws of the day which required that players were able to control the game in some way. The original conversion was applied to approximately 50 late-model Bally slot machines. Because the typical machine stopped the reels automatically in less than 10 seconds, weights were added to the mechanical timers to prolong the automatic stopping of the reels. By the time the New Jersey Alcoholic Beverages Commission (ABC) had approved the conversion for use in New Jersey arcades, the word was out and every other distributor began adding skill stops. The machines were a huge hit on the Jersey Shore and the remaining unconverted Bally machines were destroyed as they had become instantly obsolete.^{[citation needed]}

Legislation[edit]

United States[edit]

In the United States, the public and private availability of slot machines is highly regulated by state governments. Many states have established gaming control boards to regulate the possession and use of slot machines and other form of gaming.

Nevada is the only state that has no significant restrictions against slot machines both for public and private use. In New Jersey, slot machines are only allowed in hotel casinos operated in Atlantic City. Several states (Indiana, Louisiana and Missouri) allow slot machines (as well as any casino-style gambling) only on licensed riverboats or permanently anchored barges. Since Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi has removed the requirement that casinos on the Gulf Coast operate on barges and now allows them on land along the shoreline. Delaware allows slot machines at three horse tracks; they are regulated by the state lottery commission. In Wisconsin, bars and taverns are allowed to have up to five machines. These machines usually allow a player to either take a payout, or gamble it on a double-or-nothing "side game".

The territory of Puerto Rico places significant restrictions on slot machine ownership, but the law is widely flouted and slot machines are common in bars and coffeeshops.^[31]

In regards to tribal casinos located on Native American reservations, slot machines played against the house and operating independently from a centralized computer system are classified as "Class III" gaming by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), and sometimes promoted as "Vegas-style" slot machines.^[32] In order to offer Class III gaming, tribes must enter into a compact (agreement) with the state that is approved by the Department of the Interior, which may contain restrictions on the types and quantity of such games. As a workaround, some casinos may operate slot machines as "Class II" games—a category that includes games where players play exclusively against at least one other opponent and not the house, such as bingo or any related games (such as pull-tabs). In these cases, the reels are an entertainment display with a pre-determined outcome based on a centralized game played against other players. Under the IGRA, Class II games are regulated by individual tribes and the National Indian Gaming Commission, and do not require any additional approval if the state already permits tribal gaming.^[33]^[34]

Some historical race wagering terminals operate in a similar manner, with the machines using slots as an entertainment display for outcomes paid using the parimutuel betting system, based on results of randomly-selected, previously-held horse races (with the player able to view selected details about the race and adjust their picks before playing the credit, or otherwise use an auto-bet system).^[35]

Private ownership[edit]

See also: United States slot machine ownership regulations by state

Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia place no restrictions on private ownership of slot machines. Conversely, in Connecticut, Hawaii, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Tennessee, private ownership of any slot machine is completely prohibited. The remaining states allow slot machines of a certain age (typically 25–30 years) or slot machines manufactured before a specific date.

Canada[edit]

The Government of Canada has minimal involvement in gambling beyond the Canadian Criminal Code. In essence, the term "lottery scheme" used in the code means slot machines, bingo and table games normally associated with a casino. These fall under the jurisdiction of the province or territory without reference to the federal government; in practice, all Canadian provinces operate gaming boards that oversee lotteries, casinos and video lottery terminals under their jurisdiction.

OLG piloted a classification system for slot machines at the Grand River Raceway developed by University of Waterloo professor Kevin Harrigan, as part of its PlaySmart initiative for responsible gambling. Inspired by nutrition labels on foods, they displayed metrics such as volatility and frequency of payouts.^[36] OLG has also deployed electronic gaming machines with pre-determined outcomes based on a bingo or pull-tab game, initially branded as "TapTix", which visually resemble slot machines.^[37]

Australia[edit]

In Australia "Poker Machines" or "pokies"^[38] are officially termed "gaming machines". In Australia, gaming machines are a matter for state governments, so laws vary between states. Gaming machines are found in casinos (approximately one in each major city), pubs and clubs in some states (usually sports, social, or RSL clubs). The first Australian state to legalize this style of gambling was New South Wales, when in they were made legal in all registered clubs in the state. There are suggestions that the proliferation of poker machines has led to increased levels of problem gambling; however, the precise nature of this link is still open to research.^[39]

In the Australian Productivity Commission reported that nearly half Australia's gaming machines were in New South Wales. At the time, 21% of all the gambling machines in the world were operating in Australia and, on a per capita basis, Australia had roughly five times as many gaming machines as the United States. Australia ranks 8th in total number of gaming machines after Japan, U.S.A., Italy, U.K., Spain and Germany. This primarily is because gaming machines have been legal in the state of New South Wales since ; over time, the number of machines has grown to 97, (at December , including the Australian Capital Territory). By way of comparison, the U.S. State of Nevada, which legalised gaming including slots several decades before N.S.W., had , slots operating.^[40]

Revenue from gaming machines in pubs and clubs accounts for more than half of the $4 billion in gambling revenue collected by state governments in fiscal year &#;^{[citation needed]}

In Queensland, gaming machines in pubs and clubs must provide a return rate of 85%, while machines located in casinos must provide a return rate of 90%.^{[citation needed]} Most other states have similar provisions. In Victoria, gaming machines must provide a minimum return rate of 87% (including jackpot contribution), including machines in Crown Casino. As of December 1, , Victoria banned gaming machines that accepted $ notes; all gaming machines made since comply with this rule. This new law also banned machines with an automatic play option. One exception exists in Crown Casino for any player with a VIP loyalty card: they can still insert $ notes and use an autoplay feature (whereby the machine will automatically play until credit is exhausted or the player intervenes). All gaming machines in Victoria have an information screen accessible to the user by pressing the "i key" button, showing the game rules, paytable, return to player percentage, and the top and bottom five combinations with their odds. These combinations are stated to be played on a minimum bet (usually 1 credit per line, with 1 line or reel played, although some newer machines do not have an option to play 1 line; some machines may only allow maximum lines to be played), excluding feature wins.

Western Australia has the most restrictive regulations on electronic gaming machines in general, with the Crown Perth casino resort being the only venue allowed to operate them,^[41] and banning slot machines with spinning reels entirely. This policy had an extensive political history, reaffirmed by the Royal Commission into Gambling:^[42]

Poker machine playing is a mindless, repetitive and insidious form of gambling which has many undesirable features. It requires no thought, no skill or social contact. The odds are never about winning. Watching people playing the machines over long periods of time, the impressionistic evidence at least is that they are addictive to many people. Historically poker machines have been banned from Western Australia and we consider that, in the public interest, they should stay banned.

While Western Australian gaming machines are similar to the other states', they do not have spinning reels. Therefore, different animations are used in place of the spinning reels in order to display each game result.

Nick Xenophon was elected on an independent No Pokies ticket in the South Australian Legislative Council at the South Australian state election on percent, re-elected at the election on percent, and elected to the Australian Senate at the federal election on percent. Independent candidate Andrew Wilkie, an anti-pokies campaigner, was elected to the Australian House of Representatives seat of Denison at the federal election. Wilkie was one of four crossbenchers who supported the GillardLabor government following the hung parliament result. Wilkie immediately began forging ties with Xenophon as soon as it was apparent that he was elected. In exchange for Wilkie's support, the Labor government are attempting to implement precommitment technology for high-bet/high-intensity poker machines, against opposition from the Tony AbbottCoalition and Clubs Australia.

During the COVID pandemic of , every establishment in the country that facilitated poker machines was shut down, in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus, bringing Australia's usage of poker machines effectively to zero.^[43]

Russia[edit]

In Russia, "slot clubs" appeared quite late, only in Before , slot machines were only in casinos and small shops, but later slot clubs began appearing all over the country. The most popular and numerous were "Vulcan " and "Taj Mahal". Since when gambling establishments were banned, almost all slot clubs disappeared and are found only in a specially authorized gambling zones.

United Kingdom[edit]

Row of old fruit machines in Teignmouth Pier, Devon

Slot machines are covered by the Gambling Act , which superseded the Gaming Act ^[44]

Slot machines in the U.K. are categorised by definitions produced by the Gambling Commission as part of the Gambling Act of

Machine category	Maximum stake (from January )	Maximum prize (from January )
A	Unlimited	Unlimited
B1	£5	£10, or if the game has a progressive jackpot that can be £20,
B2	£ (in multiples of £10)	£
B3	£2	£
B3A	£1	£
B4	£2	£
C	£1	£ or £ If jackpot is repeated
D (various)	10p to £8	£8 cash or £50 non-cash

Casinos built under the provisions of the Act are allowed to house either up to twenty machines of categories B–D or any number of C–D machines. As defined by the Act, large casinos can have a maximum of one hundred and fifty machines in any combination of categories B–D (subject to a machine-to-table ratio of ); small casinos can have a maximum of eighty machines in any combination of categories B–D (subject to a machine-to-table ratio of ).

Category A[edit]

Category A games were defined in preparation for the planned "Super Casinos". Despite a lengthy bidding process with Manchester being chosen as the single planned location, the development was cancelled soon after Gordon Brown became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. As a result, there are no lawful Category A games in the U.K.

Category B[edit]

Category B games are divided into subcategories. The differences between B1, B3 and B4 games are mainly the stake and prizes as defined in the above table. Category B2 games &#; Fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) &#; have quite different stake and prize rules: FOBTs are mainly found in licensed betting shops, or bookmakers, usually in the form of electronic roulette.

The games are based on a random number generator; thus each game's probability of getting the jackpot is independent of any other game: probabilities are all equal. If a pseudorandom number generator is used instead of a truly random one, probabilities are not independent since each number is determined at least in part by the one generated before it.

Category C[edit]

Category C games are often referred to as fruit machines, one-armed bandits and AWP (amusement with prize). Fruit machines are commonly found in pubs, clubs, and arcades. Machines commonly have three but can be found with four or five reels, each with 16–24 symbols printed around them. The reels are spun each play, from which the appearance of particular combinations of symbols result in payment of their associated winnings by the machine (or alternatively initiation of a subgame). These games often have many extra features, trails and subgames with opportunities to win money; usually more than can be won from just the payouts on the reel combinations.

Fruit machines in the U.K. almost universally have the following features, generally selected at random using a pseudorandom number generator:

A player (known in the industry as a punter) may be given the opportunity to hold one or more reels before spinning, meaning they will not be spun but instead retain their displayed symbols yet otherwise count normally for that play. This can sometimes increase the chance of winning, especially if two or more reels are held.
A player may also be given a number of nudges following a spin (or, in some machines, as a result in a subgame). A nudge is a step rotation of a reel chosen by the player (the machine may not allow all reels to be nudged for a particular play).
Cheats can also be made available on the internet or through emailed newsletters to subscribers. These cheats give the player the impression of an advantage, whereas in reality the payout percentage remains exactly the same. The most widely used cheat is known as hold after a nudge and increases the chance that the player will win following an unsuccessful nudge. Machines from the early s did not advertise the concept of hold after a nudge when this feature was first introduced, it became so well known amongst players and widespread amongst new machine releases that it is now well-advertised on the machine during play. This is characterized by messages on the display such as DON'T HOLD ANY or LET 'EM SPIN and is a designed feature of the machine, not a cheat at all. Holding the same pair three times on three consecutive spins also gives a guaranteed win on most machines that offer holds.

It is known for machines to pay out multiple jackpots, one after the other (this is known as a "repeat") but each jackpot requires a new game to be played so as not to violate the law about the maximum payout on a single play. Typically this involves the player only pressing the Start button at the "repeat" prompt, for which a single credit is taken, regardless of whether this causes the reels to spin or not. Machines are also known to intentionally set aside money, which is later awarded in a series of wins, known as a "streak". The minimum payout percentage is 70%, with pubs often setting the payout at around 78%.

Japan[edit]

Further information: Pachinko

Japanese slot machines, known as pachisuro (パチスロ) or pachislot from the words "pachinko" and "slot machine", are a descendant of the traditional Japanese pachinko game. Slot machines are a fairly new phenomenon and they can be found mostly in pachinko parlors and the adult sections of amusement arcades, known as game centers.

The machines are regulated with integrated circuits, and have six different levels changing the odds of a The levels provide a rough outcome of between 90% to % (% for skilled players). Japanese slot machines are "beatable". Parlor operators naturally set most machines to simply collect money, but intentionally place a few paying machines on the floor so that there will be at least someone winning,^{[citation needed]} encouraging players on the losing machines to keep gambling, using the psychology of the gambler's fallacy.

Despite the many varieties of pachislot machines, there are certain rules and regulations put forward by the Security Electronics and Communication Technology Association (保安電子通信技術協会), an affiliate of the National Police Agency. For example, there must be three reels. All reels must be accompanied by buttons which allow players to manually stop them, reels may not spin faster than 80 RPM, and reels must stop within seconds of a button press. In practice, this means that machines cannot let reels slip more than 4 symbols. Other rules include a 15 coin payout cap, a 50 credit cap on machines, a 3 coin maximum bet, and other such regulations.^{[citation needed]}

Although a 15 coin payout may seem quite low, regulations allow "Big Bonus" (c. – coins) and "Regular Bonus" modes (c. coins) where these 15 coin payouts occur nearly continuously until the bonus mode is finished. While the machine is in bonus mode, the player is entertained with special winning scenes on the LCD display, and energizing music is heard, payout after payout.

Three other unique features of Pachisuro machines are "stock", "renchan", and tenjō (天井). On many machines, when enough money to afford a bonus is taken in, the bonus is not immediately awarded. Typically the game merely stops making the reels slip off the bonus symbols for a few games. If the player fails to hit the bonus during these "standby games", it is added to the "stock" for later collection. Many current games, after finishing a bonus round, set the probability to release additional stock (gained from earlier players failing to get a bonus last time the machine stopped making the reels slip for a bit) very high for the first few games. As a result, a lucky player may get to play several bonus rounds in a row (a "renchan"), making payouts of 5, or even 10, coins possible. The lure of "stock" waiting in the machine, and the possibility of "renchan" tease the gambler to keep feeding the machine. To tease them further, there is a tenjō (ceiling), a maximum limit on the number of games between "stock" release. For example, if the tenjō is 1,, and the number of games played since the last bonus is 1,, the player is guaranteed to release a bonus within just 10 games.

Because of the "stock", "renchan", and tenjō systems, it is possible to make money by simply playing machines on which someone has just lost a huge amount of money. This is called being a "hyena". They are easy to recognize, roaming the aisles for a "kamo" ("sucker" in English) to leave his machine.

In short, the regulations allowing "stock", "renchan", and tenjō transformed the pachisuro from a low-stakes form of entertainment just a few years back to hardcore gambling. Many people may be gambling more than they can afford, and the big payouts also lure unsavory "hyena" types into the gambling halls.

To address these social issues, a new regulation (Version ) was adopted in which caps the maximum amount of "stock" a machine can hold to around 2,–3, coins' worth of bonus games. Moreover, all pachisuro machines must be re-evaluated for regulation compliance every three years. Version came out in , so that means all those machines with the up to 10, coin payouts will be removed from service by

Jackpot disputes[edit]

Electronic slot machines can malfunction. When the displayed amount is smaller than the one it is supposed to be, the error usually goes unnoticed. When it happens the other way, disputes are likely.^[45] Below are some notable arguments caused by the owners of the machines saying that the displayed amounts were far larger than the ones patrons should get.

United States of America[edit]

Two such cases occurred in casinos in Colorado in , where software errors led to indicated jackpots of $11 million and $42 million.^{[citation needed]} Analysis of machine records by the state Gaming Commission revealed faults, with the true jackpot being substantially smaller.^[46] State gaming laws did not require a casino to honour payouts in that case.

Vietnam[edit]

On October 25, , while a Vietnamese American man, Ly Sam, was playing a slot machine in the Palazzo Club at the Sheraton Saigon Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, it displayed that he had hit a jackpot of US$55,,^[47] The casino refused to pay, saying it was a machine error, Mr Ly sued the casino.^[48] On January 7, , the District 1 People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City decided that the casino had to pay the amount Mr Ly claimed in full, not trusting the error report from an inspection company hired by the casino.^[49] Both sides appealed thereafter, and Mr Ly asked for interest while the casino refused to pay him.^[50] In January, , the news reported that the case had been settled out of court, and Mr Ly had received an undisclosed sum.^[51]

Problem gambling and slot machines[edit]

Mills Novelty Co. Horse Head Bonus antique slot machine

Natasha Dow Schüll, associate professor in New York University's Department of Media, Culture and Communication, uses the term "machine zone" to describe the state of immersion that users of slot machines experience when gambling, where they lose a sense of time, space, bodily awareness, and monetary value.^[52]

Mike Dixon, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Waterloo,^[53] studies the relationship between slot players and machines. In one of Dixon's studies, players were observed experiencing heightened arousal from the sensory stimulus coming from the machines. They "sought to show that these 'losses disguised as wins' (LDWs) would be as arousing as wins, and more arousing than regular losses."^[54]

Psychologists Robert Breen and Marc Zimmerman^[55]^[56] found that players of video slot machines reach a debilitating level of involvement with gambling three times as rapidly as those who play traditional casino games, even if they have engaged in other forms of gambling without problems.

Eye-tracking research in local bookkeepers' offices in the UK suggested that, in slots games, the reels dominated players' visual attention, and that problem gamblers looked more frequently at amount-won messages than did those without gambling problems.^[57]

The 60 Minutes report "Slot Machines: The Big Gamble"^[58] focused on the link between slot machines and gambling addiction.

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^Breen, Robert B; Zimmerman, M. (). "Rapid Onset of Pathological Gambling in Machine Gamblers". Journal of Gambling Studies. 18 (1): 31– doi/A PMID&#; S2CID&#;
^Breen, Robert B (). "Rapid Onset of Pathological Gambling in Machine Gamblers: A Replication". ECommunity: The International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. 2 (1): 44–
^Rogers, R. D., Butler, J., Millard, S., Cristino, F., Davitt, L. I., & Leek, E. C. (). A scoping investigation of eye-tracking in Electronic Gambling Machine (EGM) play. Bangor: Bangor University. Retrieved from: www.enthralaviation.com
^"Slot Machines: The Big Gamble". 60 Minutes. 7 January CBS. Retrieved 8 May

Bibliography[edit]

Brisman, Andrew. The American Mensa Guide to Casino Gambling: Winning Ways (Stirling, ) ISBN&#;X
Grochowski, John. The Slot Machine Answer Book: How They Work, How They've Changed, and How to Overcome the House Advantage (Bonus Books, ) ISBN&#;
Legato, Frank. How to Win Millions Playing Slot Machines! Or Lose Trying (Bonus Books, ) ISBN&#;

External links[edit]

Источник: [www.enthralaviation.com]

Bandit Bar Penguin Slot Machine

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Why Do Slot Machines Say Bar on Their Reels?

Introduction to Slot Machines Say Bar

Why do slot machines say bar on their reels? Well, to understand why this tradition came to be, we&#;ll have to delve into slot machine history.

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At first, these gambling devices weren&#;t always called slot machines. Slot machines were originally referred to as a one-armed bandit, then later in Great Britain as a fruit machine.

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Bar Reel Symbols

A slot machine gambling device is activated by pulling a handle or pushing a button. This can only be done after coins, tokens, cash, or casino credits has been entered. Consequently, reels with symbols begin to spin. When done spinning, the symbols shown lined up along pay lines are used to determine the payout, if any.

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Reel symbols are often traditional, including stars, bars, numbers, and various pictured fruits. Fruits can include cherries, plums, oranges, lemons, and watermelons. The number seven is also very popular. And, finally, then there are bar reel symbols.

Fruit reel symbols were first used in slot machine by the Industry Novelty Company in This was quickly followed the next year by Mills Novelty Company of Chicago, recently inherited by Herbert Stephen Mills. But, with a slight addition.

Mills added the photograph of a chewing gum pack along with the fruit reel symbols. Soon after, these photographs of a chewing gum pack were replaced with a stylized bar symbol.

Slot machines have a very rich history. Within gaming device circles of the time, it was well known that Charles Augustus Fey of San Francisco refused to sell or lease the design of his first coin-operated slot machine, the Liberty Bell, which he invented around

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So, how did Mills get the design from Fey? There are two theories. First, that Fey cooperated with Mills to spread the use of slot machines. After all, Fey is known as the “Father of Slots” both for his invention of the coin-operated device as well as popularizing its use.

The second theory is Mills somehow “obtained” a Liberty Bell from a San Francisco saloon robbery in Less than a year later, Mills produced a new version of the Liberty Bell called either the Mills Liberty Bell or Operator Bell.

During my review of the history of early slot machines, there are also suggestions the bar symbol may have another origin story. It is generally accepted that the bar symbol is a stylized image of a chewing gum pack, as well as a company logo.

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According to some historical sources, however, the company having that logo may have been the Bell-Gum Fruit company.

Bar and fruit reel symbols are traditional (Slot Machines Say Bar).

A Bit More History

As mentioned, slot machines have a very rich history, especially in their early days. Besides Why Do Slot Machines Say Bar, there are a few other interesting historical items of interest.

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In , another historic slot machine innovation created by the Mills Novelty Company was the jackpot. When a specific combination of reel symbols resulted from a bet, the slot machine would empty its coin hopper of all coins as a prize.

The Mills Novelty would later go on to produce slot machines with wooden cabinets, rather than the original cast iron construction materials.

Photos of early slot machines are online at Cyprus Casino Consultant, Casino Observer, the International Arcade Museum, and elsewhere. I especially enjoy photos of antique slot machines in my copy of Slot Machines: A Pictorial History of the First Years by Marshall Fey, grandson of “the Father of Slot Machines” Charles Fey.

The Cyprus Casino Consultant website shows 4 slot machines on a waist-high countertop. They appear to have wood cabinets and are each perhaps 30 inches high by 18 inches wide. In metric, that’s about 76 centimeters by 46 centimeters.

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Each slot machine is of the one-armed bandit variety, meaning they appear to are activated by first inserting a coin and then pulling a large lever on the right side of the machine. Each of these models appears to accept coins at the top, as well as dispense coins for winners at the bottom.

The Casino Observer website also shows 4 slot machines. Two of these machines are some of the first slot machines, from about , while two others are more modern, ~s. The two older slot machines receive coins, but only the poker machine appears to not be able to dispense coins. This poker machine has typical card suits as reel symbols and a cast metal-type cabinet.

It appears to be missing its one-armed bandit lever, perhaps due to damage, or it never had a lever. One older slot machine with coin dispenser capability is clearly identified as a “Liberty Bell”. It rests on cast feet located on each corner. The reel symbols show three Liberty Bells, but its “pay table” shows card suits – not fruit or bars.

The International Arcade Museum website shows a single slot machine. It’s a very old slot machine showing the symbol of the Liberty Bell on its front next to three reels showing Liberty Bell, bar, and fruit reel symbols.

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This is probably a “Liberty Bell” by Charles Fey, but must be a slightly later version due to it having obvious fruit and bar reel symbols. It also has a cast metal-type cabinet and the distinctive “feet” of a Liberty Bell. It also has a small tray for coins, suggesting it has automatic payouts.

Charles Fey manufactured about Liberty Bell slot machines for distribution in and around San Francisco. However, there are few of them remaining in existence. The scarcity of Fey&#;s Liberty Bell is a direct result of a natural disaster occurring shortly after their manufacture: the San Francisco Earthquake.

Traditional bar reel symbols can be single bar, double bar, or even more bars (Slot Machines Say Bar).

Summary of Slot Machines Say Bar

The cherry and bar symbols became traditional to slot machines and are still commonly used today. The bar symbol was a company logo, originally a photo of a chewing gum pack before being stylized as a bar.

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Bandit Saloon

Welcome to the Bandit Saloon, a place where all of your wildest spinning dreams might just come true. This 5-reel, way slot machine by Capecod Gaming software encapsulates the spirit of the Old Wild West by giving every punter the chance to make their own fortune with a 2,x coin bet jackpot.

This video slot machine is also strapped and booted up with some explosive bonus action too, with expanding wilds, 2x wilds and a shoot-em up bonus bandits side game. All in all, this medium volatility video slot might just give you a glimpse of the American Dream with its winning opportunities.

The Way of the West

Ahh the good Old Wild West, a time in which life was simpler. And also probably quite terrible if you ask us. Living on the western frontier of North America back in the day was no picnic, what with all of the crime, outlaws, corrupt sheriffs and money-greedy government officials. And then there was the heat, lack of water and a lot of creepy crawlies to boot. We'd take green grass and an established social infrastructure any day of the week!

Even so, there is a particular charm that the western genre throws up that can't be emulated by any other style of slot machine. This effort by Capecod Gaming software elicits the appeal of the Wild West perfectly in a game that is designed to a perfectly rickety standard with wooden frames revealing a dusty dead-end town somewhere in the middle of the Texas dessert. The symbols on the reels show pretty much everything that any good cowboy or cowgirl needs to get by in the dangerous environment, such as a pair of pistols, a sack of cash and a bottle of fine bourbon.

Wild Wild Wins

Perhaps the main reason that people braved the dangers of the Wild West was the promise of the ultimate American dream – endless fortune. This slot machine isn't quite as arduous and life-threatening as the real desert, but it still offers plenty of potential gains. With ways to win, there are wins for every spinner, but lucky punters could line up a top line bet jackpot of 1,x if they find the right sequence of icons on the reels.

The coin values available to play with range from to credits. To account for the fact that there are ways to win, this coin value will be multiplied by 10x to calculate the total bet that is placed on the reels. The RTP of this slot machine is %.

There's a Bonus in My Boot

Helping players to boost their wins is a range of special bonus icons, from wilds to bonus triggering scatters. To begin with, players will find that the bourbon symbol has the ability to not only complete wins as a wild icon, but it will also multiply those wins by 2x. That isn't the only wild on the reels, because there is a also a wild horseshoe symbol that will expand to fill the entire reel upon which it appears.

Players will notice that this game also plays host to a special “Wanted” poster that acts as a scatter to award wins worth up to 2,x whenever five appear in any position. Should three or more of these bonus scatter icons appear, players will be given a number of attempts to gun down a band of bandits in a shoot 'em style side game. The more “Wanted” posters that trigger the feature, the more attempts a player will have to find some big wins.

This Town Might be Big Enough for More Western Slots

The Wild West genre has captivated readers of literature, watchers of films, players of video games and now it is one of the most popular themes for spinners of slot machines. Some top-quality slots with a western element to them are Bandit's Bounty by World Match, 7 Smokin' Wilds by Bede Gaming and West Town by Softswiss.

Worth a Spin?

Bandit Saloon may take on a fairly generic theme, but it executes the design and gameplay to a very high standard. Not only will spinners of this game be immersed into an authentic Wild West town, but they will also have a chance to make their own fortunes with a game that pays in ways and which presents a number of wild symbols and bonus prize bounties.

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Roulette players at Bank Saloon in Tonopah, NV

California was bursting at the seams with fortune seekers inwhen year-old Charles Fey landed in San Francisco. Gaming was made illegal in California that year, but that ban would not deter the immigrant from Bavaria, Germany.

At that time, games of chance did not have a direct payout mechanism, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. If a patron inserted a Cash Farm Slots Machine and won a royal flush, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine establishment might pay him out in drinks or cigars. InFey automated the process through his three-reel slot machine, popularly known as the one-armed bandit, in which the gambler pulled a handle to spin the reels and, upon winning, would be paid out by a stream of nickels pouring out into a tray below.

Inspired by the success of his first machine, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, Fey improved it, patriotically naming his invention the Liberty Bell, after one of the images featured on his spinning reels, which also showed horseshoes, diamonds, spades and hearts.

The popularity of Fey’s machines in saloons urged others to step into the gaming market, including Herbert Mills of Chicago, Illinois. Some makers, to get around the gambling ban, created trade stimulators that gave out winnings in the form of chewing gum or cigars. Photographs of some of our nation’s last frontier saloons showcase these gaming devices and are lavishly featured in Roger Kislingbury’s latest book, American Saloons: Pre-Prohibition Photographs.

Despite Mills stealing Fey’s Liberty Bell machine outright, Fey found success
by focusing on the San Francisco market. He even invented a detecting pin to distinguish fake nickels from real ones to deter cheating players. But the earthquake and fire dealt a death blow to slot machine production in San Francisco, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Although Fey did get back in business after his factory was destroyed, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, bans on gambling made headway. San Francisco first prohibited cash prizes and then, byoutlawed slot machines entirely. By the time the Prohibition alcohol ban started inslot machines had mainly turned into vending machines for gum, candy and mints.

Old West gamblers gave Fey his success in America, where he died, in ,at the age of His famous Liberty Bell slot machine is commemorated by a plaque on San Francisco’s Crown-Zellerbach building, the site of his workshop. Nevada is still home to his revolutionary slot machine, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, housed at the Nevada State Museum in Carson City. Even though today’s gamblers can push front panel buttons rather than pull the side lever, Fey’s one-armed bandit survives on many modern-day slot machines, which all trace to the one he built in San Francisco.

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Related Bandit Saloon Slots Machine width="82" height="50" src="www.enthralaviation.com" alt="/Frontiersmen-and-their-weapons">

The turbulent environment of the frontier milieu served as a dramatic stage for virtually all…

We feel fortunate to have photographs of Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and Dallas Stoudenmire, but,…

With a stage robbery anything could happen. It depended on the robbers and the behavior…

Meghan Saar is the former editor of True West, the world&#;s oldest, continuously published Western Americana magazine. She has worked in niche publication content development sinceand she has a B.S. in Journalism and Creative Writing from the University of Arizona—Tucson.

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Introduction

American business and technology has long profited from the ingenuity, technical know-how, and practical skills of immigrants such as Charles August Fey (born February 2, in Vöhringen, Bavaria; died November 4,San Francisco, CA) who arrived in Casino.com Casino Bonussen United States in at the age of twenty three.[1] Born Augustinus Jospehus Fey in the small Bavarian village of Vöhringen, Charles Fey started working at an early age. He left home at age fifteen, moving first to France and then to England before finally settling in the U.S. Possessed of a keen understanding of mechanics, Fey built his first slot machine in Soon thereafter, he built the popular slot machine and then the famous Liberty Bell, a three-reel automatic payout machine that still forms the basis of slot machines today. Fey’s slot machines represented the nexus between technological Cash Flow Slots Machine and the rise of the modern entertainment industry. Much of his success lay in his ability to continually refine his machines in order to capitalize on opportunities afforded by the emerging gaming industry in late s San Francisco.

Family Background

Located in the district of Neu-Ulm in Bavaria, Vöhringen is a relatively small town that forms part of the Danube-Iller region. The town, whose history can be traced back to the 5th or 6th century A.D., underwent several changes of political administration during the 15thcentury and suffered the ravages of the Thirty Years’ War () before becoming part of the Kingdom of Bavaria in The reign of Maximilian III ()[2] brought agricultural progress and the emergence of infant industries to Bavaria, but these developments mostly benefitted large cities such as Augsburg and Nuremberg, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, leaving rural areas like Vöhringen largely unaffected. Changes of a more far-reaching nature first came during the reign of Max II (), when Bavaria underwent political liberalization and industrialization, processes whose effects were felt in villages throughout the kingdom. The dawn of industrialization in Bavaria as a whole was evidenced by the completion of a regional railroad system in the early s, while its arrival in Vöhringen itself was signaled by Philipp Jakob Wieland’s purchase of a local mill and adjacent factory ground in [3]

It was against this historical backdrop that Augustinus Josephus Fey was born on February 2,to Maria (née Vollman) and Karl Fey. At the time, Vöhringen had a population of about Bandit Saloon Slots Machine the youngest of fifteen children in a household with an annual family income of Betsson Casino 25 Free Spins, Fey was part of a large and poor family. His father, Karl Josef Gustav Johann, worked as a schoolmaster and sexton of the ecumenical cathedral at Neu-Ulm between and In order to supplement his meager income, Karl Fey also served as the village council clerk and meat inspector. Though life was harsh for the family, the railroad system made it easy to escape Vöhringen. The railroad and the opportunities it afforded had a considerable impact on the young August Fey and probably sparked his desire to explore Bavaria and beyond.[4]

Inat age fourteen, Fey accompanied his older brother Edmund to his job at a farm tool factory owned by the Munich Plow Company. Fey was on school vacation at the time. His experience at the farm tool factory was no doubt significant, for it was there that he acquired basic skills in mechanics and developed a keen interest in mechanical devices. The following year, at age fifteen, Fey left Bavaria for France, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. His decision to leave may have been prompted by a variety of factors: it is conceivable, for instance, that he was afraid of being drafted into the new army of the recently unified German Reich. As a Bavarian, he may have felt little allegiance gold coast casino a Prussian-dominated Reich and thus been especially reluctant to serve in its military. On an entirely different note, there was also a precedent for emigration within his extended family: his mother’s youngest brother, Martin Vollman, had departed for New Jersey in the s, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Finally, Fey’s training at the Munich Plow Company may have also played a role in his decision to emigrate, since it gave him a marketable skill.

Indeed, when he eventually found work in France it was with an intercom equipment manufacturer in Amiens. It would appear that Fey remained in France for approximately three years, after which point he obtained a recommendation from his French employer and moved to London, where he spent the next five years as an apprentice in the nautical instrument department of a British shipyard. Presumably, Fey’s long stay in London allowed him to acquire professional skills, attain English language fluency, and save Bandit Saloon Slots Machine money to travel to the U.S., his final destination. Inhe immigrated to New Jersey. At first, the twenty-three-year-old Fey lived with his uncle’s family in Hoboken, New Jersey, but after a few months he set out for California, the new land of opportunity. After trekking across the United States, he arrived in San Francisco later that year. A wide open town of saloons, honky-tonks, and gambling, San Francisco was also the center of the nation’s burgeoning coin-machine industry.[5]

Upon his arrival in San Francisco, Fey found a job as a machinist. He also met and courted Marie Christine Volkmar (), whose parents, Christian () and Emilie Volkmar (), had emigrated from Westphalia and ran a flourishing cigar business in San Francisco. But his dreams of finding permanent work and marrying Marie were shattered when Fey was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Told that he had only a year to live, he bought a horse and sought the warmer climes of Mexico, where he was determined to fight and overcome the illness, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Unfortunately, his health did not improve there, so he returned to San Francisco to undergo successful creosote treatments. After recuperating and receiving a clean bill of health, Fey was ready to revisit his plans for long-lasting happiness in San Francisco. It appears that he soon found permanent employment, for the San Francisco City Directory for lists August Fey as an instrument maker employed by the California Electric Works (later Western Electric).[6] There, he befriended Theodor Holtz, a German compatriot and company foreman who later became a company partner. By the end of the s, Fey had changed his name from August Fey to Charles August Fey. (Apparently, he had always been irritated by the nickname “Gus.”) Known to intimates as Charlie, he had not forgotten Marie. He renewed his courtship with her and the two married in ; their daughter Alma was born in The young couple, who lived with Marie’s parents at Grove Street for a time,[7] quickly had two more daughters, Elsie and Marie, born in andrespectively; their only son, Edmund, was born in [8] Unfortunately, Christian and Emilie Volkmar died when their grandchildren were still young. Christian’s death was reported in the November 14,edition of TheSan Francisco Call; Emilie’s was reported in the edition of January 5,

Business Development

During his time at California Electric Works, Fey met Theodor Holtz and Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Schultze. Both had emigrated from Germany and shared Bandit Saloon Slots Machine enthusiasm for mechanical devices, particularly slot machines, which were extremely popular in San Francisco in the s. The first “nickel-in-the slot” machines dated back to the s, but they were more like vending machines than slot machines in the contemporary sense. Coin-operated gambling devices Bandit Saloon Slots Machine followed, but these early-model machines could not pay back winnings, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. A human attendant, usually a proprietor or a barkeeper, was needed to issue the payout, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Since many of these machines were located in cigar stores and liquor-licensed establishments, payout was often in trade checks or tokens, which could be redeemed for cigars or drinks. Slot machines varied in size from counter-top models to large floor machines. Among the countertop machines, poker machines proved the Bandit Saloon Slots Machine popular. Poker machines featured actual cards that flipped on five reels after the deposit of a nickel. Awards ranged from one drink for a pair of kings or aces to one hundred drinks for a royal flush.

InSchultze was awarded a patent for his so-called Horsehoe slot machine, the first recognizably modern slot machine with an automatic payout mechanism.[9] It was the first U.S. patent issued for a gambling machine. After seeing Schultze’s design, Fey Margaritaville Slots Machine inspired to build a slot machine with automatic payout. Inhe designed his own version of the Horseshoe. That same year, after amassing sufficient start-up funds, Fey and Holtz quit their jobs at California Electric Works and founded Holtz and Fey Electric Works as equal partners on 39 Stevenson Street in San Francisco. Their company was located in close proximity to Schultze’s business, the first recorded slot machine workshop in San Francisco. Holtz and Fey Electric Works specialized in model work and gear-cutting and also provided the parts for Bandit Saloon Slots Machine machines. Like Holtz and Schultze, Fey and his family moved to Berkeley, then a small and quiet Bandit Saloon Slots Machine of 6, There, inin the basement of his residence, he Bandit Saloon Slots Machine a modified version of the Horseshoe, the groundbreaking slot machine. The name derived from the game Policy, a popular lottery game in which was the rare winning sequence. Fey’s three-disc floor machine paid up to $ for the syndicate casino number combination. Unlike other contemporary coin-operated games, Fey’s slot machine paid out coins, not trade checks or tokens, and this made it both more appealing and more lucrative than traditional poker machines of the time.[10]

Fey’s first slot machine was so successful at a local saloon that he quickly set out to produce more. Inhe sold his share in Holtz and Fey Electric Works and used the money to start Charles Fey & Company.[11] At the time, Fey was Todo el mundo slot juego demo gratuita on Draw Poker, a cash-paying poker machine. As his business continued to flourish, Fey realized that he could no longer operate out of his basement workshop. Inhe set up shop on the third floor of an ornate building at Market Street in the heart of San Francisco’s financial district.[12] The move helped Bandit Saloon Slots Machine grow his business, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, but it also allowed him to be closer to his slot machine competitors, including Schultze, Watling Manufacturing Company, and industry giant Mills Novelty Company of Chicago. A year later, inhe designed the first Card Bell slot machine, a three-reel, staggered-stop machine with automatic payout. The spinning reels, which were activated by a lever, featured suitmarks that lined up to form poker hands when the reels were at rest. It was here, in the delayed, sequential stopping of the reels of suitmarks, that the machine broke new ground by providing the player with the crucial elements of drama and suspense.[13] InFey modified the Card Bell, replacing some of the suitmarks with stars and bells.[14] In the process, he created the revolutionary Liberty Bell slot machine, named in honor of the United States’ famous symbol of freedom.[15]A three-reel, Robo Slots Machine machine with a lever on its right Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, the Liberty Bell had ten symbols on each reel and ten stops, which allowed for 1, different combinations. In addition to stars and bells, the reels featured horseshoes, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, spades, diamonds, and hearts. Designed to return 86% of the coins inserted into it, the Liberty Bell paid Bandit Saloon Slots Machine fifty cents when three bells aligned. It immediately began competing with the widely popular poker machines that were “on the counters of almost all cigar stores in San Francisco, and on the bars of saloons.”[16]

While the rising popularity of slot machines was good news for Fey and the city’s other slot machine manufacturers, it was cause for concern for many San Francisco residents. Headlines in the local press – “Fifteen Hundred Swindling Machines in One City” – offered an alarmist take on the proliferation of slot machines[18] and marked the beginnings of a public crusade that would profoundly alter the slot machine industry in the first decades of the 20th century. Although the full impact of the anti-gambling crusade would not be felt for years to come, some of its effects, particularly in the area of patent protection, had already proved Bandit Saloon Slots Machine to slot machine inventors in the s. Fey was apparently not interested in patenting his machines, but even if he had been, California’s anti-gambling laws would have prevented him from doing so. As mentioned earlier, Fey’s former acquaintance Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Schutlze had been awarded a patent in for his Horseshoe slot machine. InSchultze filed suit against Fey’s former business partner, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, Theodor Holtz, and others (presumably Fey as well) for infringing upon this and another patent for a coin-operated gambling machine. In the end, the court ruled against Schultze by arguing that his slot machines were illegal, and thus unworthy of protection, insofar as their sole purpose was for gambling.[19]

In the absence of patent protection, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, Fey decided not to sell or lease his machines; rather, in order to protect his inventions, he installed his slot machines in saloons and operated and serviced them himself. He made money through a 50/50 revenue sharing arrangement with proprietors. When proprietors began having problems with players who cheated by inserting fake nickels, Fey responded by creating a detecting pin, which was able to distinguish real coins from fakes. Fey’s business model proved extremely successful, and as more and more establishments requested his slots, he eventually expanded into the East Bay and down the peninsula to San Jose, “claiming the largest slot operation in the country during the early s.”[20] Despite his expanding business, Fey always remained focused on the San Francisco market and committed to his San Francisco location.

While Mills was developing his own version of the Bandit Saloon Slots Machine Bell, Fey was designing new slot machines and other gaming devices. At the time, his workshop was still located on the block of Market Street, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Unfortunately, slot machine production ended there when Fey’s factory – and virtually the entire financial district – was destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake and fire of April 18, [22] After the disaster, many manufacturers moved their production sites to the East, but Fey chose to remain in San Francisco. With the support of Mary Phelan, a member of a prominent political family and his former landlady, he built a temporary tin-shack factory on the corner of Jesse and Fifth Streets, opposite the San Francisco Mint. Within four months he was back in business. Gambling and slot machine production rebounded quickly, and Fey had to move to a Bandit Saloon Slots Machine site at Mission Street. At the same time, he also opened a Chicago branch office to compete with his Midwestern rivals.

The Rise of the Public Crusade against Slot Machines and Gambling

In the aftermath of the earthquake and the fire, it became ever clearer that San Francisco, and all of California, had embarked on a course that would prove increasingly difficult for Fey and other slot machine manufacturers. Indeed, for some gambling Bitcoin Casino, the earthquake was nothing less than a biblical sign that the nefarious slots finally had to go, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine.

California had emerged as a national center for gaming soon after it acquired statehood in Within the state, San Francisco was particularly well known for cards, gambling, lotteries, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, and, of course, slot machines. By the early s, the city boasted more than 3, licensed liquor establishments and 1, slot machines.[23] Over time, however, a number of factors helped turn public opinion against gambling. They included the rise of political bosses and political machines at the local level, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, which bred corruption in the form of prostitution, gambling, crime, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, and cronyism, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. The public outrage that resulted from all of this directed itself at a variety of targets, including slot machines. Equally important was the spread of a more Victorian code of morality that found expression in vice prevention societies and the like. By the end of the 19th century, legislation at all levels of government had made most types of gambling illegal. Inthe United States Internal Revenue Playing Card Act levied a two-cent tax on decks of cards. By the turn of the 20th century, more than half of U.S. states had passed constitutional amendments prohibiting lotteries. Arizona and New Mexico were even forced to outlaw casinos in order to gain statehood. States also passed anti-gambling legislation to repress other operations such as the “common gambling house,” the bucket shop, and the Victorian card sharp.[24]

Local legislators throughout the country joined the anti-gambling choir as well, and soon enough the fine line between a “trade stimulator,” which dispensed prizes in the form of cigars, chewing gum, stamps, or other small novelty items, and a “gambling machine” became “a tug-of-war between slot machine operators and municipal authorities.”[25] The city of San Francisco was no exception. From tothe city had supported a rather liberal gambling policy, but it took a stricter stance in subsequent years when city fathers curtailed the slot machine reward system. Since cash prizes were prohibited and merchandise was the only Bandit Saloon Slots Machine form of payout, slot machine manufacturers added amusement and merchandising features to their coin machines. Music boxes were also integrated into floor machines. In an effort to abide by the law, Fey Bandit Saloon Slots Machine to his slot machines as vending machines, put Bandit Saloon Slots Machine two-cent federal revenue stamp on each machine, and programmed some of them to dispense chewing gum.

In the summer ofSan Francisco passed a city ordinance outlawing slot machines altogether. The ban spelled an end to the operation of 3, slot machines with annual gross revenues of $12 million Bandit Saloon Slots Machine $ million in ).[26] Two years later, lawmaker William P. Kennedy introduced an anti-slot machine bill to the California state legislature. According to an article in The San Francisco Call, the terms of the bill were “such kelowna casino sound the knell of slot machine gambling in the state of California.”[27] The same article also reported on the discovery of a $5, fund for the purpose of defeating the bill. Contributors Bandit Saloon Slots Machine the fund, as the article explained, included “the saloon and cigar men of the northern and southern parts of the state.”[28] Among them was Fey, who was identified as a manufacturer of nickel-in-the-slot machines at Mission Street, and who was even quoted in the article. Like others who were interviewed for the piece, he denied any financial involvement in the fund, explaining, “Personally, I never contributed a cent.”[29] He did, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, however, express tacit support for the goal of defeating, or at least amending, the proposed legislation. “As the bill stands, it makes it practically a felony to have the machines in your possession. We wanted it amended, if possible.” The efforts of this group failed, however; inCalifornia Governor Hiram Johnson signed a bill prohibiting Japanese Fortune Slots Machine use of slot machines throughout the state. The bill effectively consigned all slot machines to the junk pile. In response, Fey cached numerous slot machines in his home on Broderick Street and relocated to Chicago, which replaced San Francisco as the capital of the slot machine industry.[30]

Fey found work in Chicago as a developer for the John Bandit Saloon Slots Machine Scale Company. It was not an unnatural move for someone with Fey’s experience – in many early slot machines, the coins inserted by players fell onto an internal balance scale, and there was always a chance that they would tip the scale and cause other coins to spill out. During Fey’s tenure, the Watlings Company started producing so-called Fey Scales and, inspired by that success, Fey decided to start Bandit Saloon Slots Machine scales on his own, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Inhe opened Pacific Bandit Saloon Slots Machine Works with William F. Schmidt in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.[31] Schmidt, the son of German immigrants from Baden, had been granted a patent for a merry-go-round-style “amusement device” back in At the time his patent application was filed (April 6, ), he was listed as a resident of Chicago. Thus, it would appear that Fey met Schmidt in Chicago, and that the two decided to move to Wisconsin to found Pacific Scale Works, which operated there until Inthe same year Pacific Scale Works was founded, Fey filed a patent application for a coin-operated weighing scale. The patent was granted on November 4, The following year, Fey and his son, Edmund, returned to Bandit Saloon Slots Machine Francisco to found Charles Fey & Company Weighing Scales on Mission Street. Inafter the end of World War I, the company was renamed Charles Fey & Son, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Edmund, who had just returned from the war, took over its management.[32]

The Start of Prohibition

Like the anti-gambling movement, the prohibition movement had a significant impact on broad areas of public life, especially ones that were critical to Fey’s business. This time, however, it was not the machines themselves that were at the center of the debate, but rather the saloons in which they were located. Political enthusiasm for prohibition had already been building in the lead up to America’s entry into World War I in Apriland the start of the war brought Bandit Saloon Slots Machine calls to end the waste of grain in the production of alcoholic Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Much of the increased hostility was directed toward German-American brewers, who, according to the Anti-Saloon League, “have rendered thousands of men inefficient and are thus crippling the Republic in its war on Prussian militarism.”[33] On August 1,the United States Senate paved the way for the passage of the 18th Amendment, which, as stipulated by the War Prohibition Act (or Volstead Act) of Jackpot 20,000 Slots Machineoutlawed the manufacture, distribution, sale, and use of alcohol. The amendment took effect on January 16,

With the closure of legal Jackpot Vault Slots Machine across the nation, their illegal counterpart, known as the “speakeasy,” cropped up almost everywhere. Fortunately for men like Fey, speakeasies often boasted a generous line-up of slot machines. Proprietors were eager to have them in their establishments, not least because they provided an essential source of revenue in uncertain times. During the Prohibition Era, slot machines were mainly operated as vending machines for gum, candy, Cbet Casino Bonuser especially mint, which had Bandit Saloon Slots Machine relatively long shelf life. Manufacturers replaced card symbols on reels with fruit symbols, and payout was either directly in merchandise or in trade checks or tokens.

Despite visible policy efforts to condemn slot machines, which were widely associated with vice, corruption, and organized crime, the Roaring Twenties brought greater demand for slot machines and an accompanying boom in the industry. And despite the best efforts of politicians and lawmakers, this growth trend continued into the early years of the Great Depression. InNew York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia personally presided over the dumping of almost 1, slot machines into the ocean, while the future Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren, then District Attorney of Alameda County, California, attempted to ban slot machines and prosecute those buying, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, and using them. Inthe police raided Fey’s factory, seizing between and machines. None of this, however, could change the fact that people simply wanted an inexpensive escape from bleak times, and that they found it with a penny’s play at games of chance and skill. Inwhen the national unemployment rate stood at 25%, small coins totaling $ million ($ billion in ) found their way into slot machines nationwide. Consequently, sales of slot machines reached record levels.

Throughout the years, Fey continued to innovate: infor example, he became the first slot machine manufacturer to modify a standard Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, nickel slot machine in such a way that it accepted a large silver dollar coin.[34] Though he remained an industry innovator, he was no longer an industry leader. That title belonged to Mills Novelty, the dominant firm in the slot machine industry for some sixty years. Other industry leaders included Caille Brothers Manufacturing Company, Watling Manufacturing Company, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, and O.D. Jennings. In the mids, pinball maker Ray Moloney joined the ranks of the slot machine manufacturers; his Bally Manufacturing Co. eventually replaced Mills Novelty as the industry leader. InFey’s company incorporated as Charles Fey Manufacturing, with Charles Fey Bandit Saloon Slots Machine president, Edmund Fey as vice president, and Fey’s long-time employee Albert Quast as secretary-treasurer. On Bandit Saloon Slots Machine 28,Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, five days short of his 82nd birthday, Charles Fey retired.[35] He sold his company to Quast. Ten months later, on November 4,he died of pneumonia in San Francisco, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, California. Bandit Saloon Slots Machine Status, Family, and Personality

It is difficult to arrive at any assessment of Fey’s personality and private life. It would appear, however, that his personal interests and hobbies were entirely synonymous with the design and building of slot machines. In this respect, his personal and business interests were one and the same. In terms of social status, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, it is difficult to compare Fey with other German-born entrepreneurs who made their marks, and their fortunes, in Bandit Saloon Slots Machine such as banking or retailing. For most Bandit Saloon Slots Machine Fey’s career, the inventions and products that he was known for – i.e. slot machines – were either outright illegal or associated with myriad vices, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, including alcohol, tobacco, and loose morals. At a time when the anti-gambling movement, the Anti-Saloon League, and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union were gaining strength, Fey’s profession would not have won him the respect of his upstanding middle-class peers; nor would it have put him in particularly good stead in San Bandit Saloon Slots Machine society. Indeed, aside from a brief notice that his daughters Alma and Elsie attended a “linen party” for a “Miss Georgia Farhner,”[36] there is Monkey Warrior Slots Machine no mention of Fey or his family in the city newspaper, The San Francisco Call, between andthe year he left for Chicago.[37] There is also no indication that he sat on the boards of various organizations, donated to charitable causes, or participated in genteel events with other business owners and men of means. Rather, he appears to have operated in a very different world: the rough-and-tumble world of gambling, saloons, and cigar shops. But within this world and during this time (which one author aptly Bandit Saloon Slots Machine as “straightforward man-to-man days”[38]), Fey seems to have commanded the respect of his peers. Apparently, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, after deconstructing one of Fey’s Liberty Bell machines, his competitor Herbert Mills could only marvel at the compact size of the internal gambling device.[39] Decades later, Fey still enjoyed the esteem of both friends and competitors alike – infor example, the National Association of Coin-Operated Machine Manufacturers honored Fey’s “Golden Anniversary” in the industry at their annual convention. On that same occasion, his friend and competitor, Joe Huber, President of Huber Coin Machine Sales Company, took out an advertisement in which he wished Fey well and offered his warmest congratulations. Huber’s Bachelorette Party Slots Machine, “We all love Charlie – Who in the hell doesn’t,” at once conveyed both the masculine bravado of the industry as a whole and the affection its members shared for Fey.

Today, Fey’s legacy is advanced mostly by his grandsons Marshall (born ) and Franklin (born ) Fey. Marshall Fey is the Bandit Saloon Slots Machine of numerous publications on his grandfather and the slot machine industry in general, some of which were sources for the Bandit Saloon Slots Machine article. From untilMarshall and Franklin Fey operated the Liberty Belle Restaurant and Saloon in Reno, Nevada. There, in addition to dining, patrons could view the brothers’ slot machine collection, which was considered by many to be the finest in the world. When the restaurant closed inthe bulk of the Feys’ collection was sold at auction. The brothers did, however, keep twenty-nine unique slot machines, which they offered on loan to the Nevada State Museum.[40]

Immigrant Entrepreneurship

By the time Fey arrived in America, he had already worked for three different instrument manufacturers in three different European countries: first, he had worked for the Munich Plow Company, then for an intercom equipment manufacturer in Amiens, France, and finally in the nautical instruments department of a London shipyard. These positions helped Fey acquire technical know-how that he eventually put to good use in the development of the slot machine. Additionally, Fey’s relatively long stay in London – he was there for five years – allowed him to save a bit of money and to acquire the English language skills required to succeed in America. Thus, he arrived in the U.S. in a relatively fortunate position. Moreover, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, he also had the benefit of having a close relative – in his case, his mother’s brother – who had already immigrated to the United States. Like many newly arrived immigrants, Fey took advantage of his family ties and lived with his uncle during his first months in America.

While it is difficult to gauge the extent to which Fey benefitted from ethnic networks, it is telling that he married the daughter of two German immigrants. Furthermore, it is significant that his father-in-law, Christian Volkmar, ran a cigar business, for many slot machines were located on the counters of cigar shops. This being the case, it is conceivable that Christian Volkmar may have put one of Fey’s early machines in his own shop or Bandit Saloon Slots Machine his network of contacts to find other proprietors who were willing to do so. Since Volkmar died inany assistance he may have given Fey would have been limited to the very earliest period of his career – the years – but this would have been precisely the time when Fey’s fledging business needed help the most.

It is also worth mentioning that Fey’s business associates were, without exception, either German immigrants or Americans of German descent. Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Schultze, who was Fey’s colleague Bandit Saloon Slots Machine California Electric Works and then his slot machine competitor, was a first generation German immigrant, as was Fey’s first business partner Theodor Holtz. William F. Schmidt, Fey’s partner in the Wisconsin-based Pacific Scale Works, was a Bandit Saloon Slots Machine generation German immigrant, and Albert Quast, Fey’s long-time foreman and eventual successor as owner of Charles Fey Manufacturing, was an American of German descent.

It is unclear when, or even whether, Fey became a naturalized U.S. citizen. According to the U.S. Census, Fey arrived in and was a naturalized citizen.[41] But in his September 26, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine,patent application for a coin-operated weighing scale, Fey identified himself as “Charles August Fey, a subject of the Emperor of Germany, residing at Fond du Lac, in the county of Fond du Lac and [the] State of Wisconsin.”

Conclusion

Intwenty-three-year old German immigrant Charles August Fey arrived in San Francisco, then the capital of the Bandit Saloon Slots Machine coin-machine industry. Over the course of a successful career that extended into the s, Fey made significant contributions to the development of America’s gaming industry. He is remembered today as the creator of the modern slot machine and as the “Thomas Edison of slots.”[42] Fey’s success was largely attributable to his keen business Doggy Reel Bingo slot free demo game and strong technical know-how. Just as important, however, was his ability to continually respond to changes and challenges – whether they took the form of industry competitors, the San Francisco earthquake ofor the rise of the anti-gambling movement. In the absence of copyright protection for his inventions, Fey kept a close watch on his slot machines, never selling or even leasing them, but rather installing them in saloons and other establishments on the basis of a 50/50 revenue sharing agreement with proprietors. This business model proved sound and eventually allowed Fey to expand throughout the San Francisco Bay area. Although Fey enjoyed success beyond the confines of San Francisco – and even worked in Chicago and founded a company in Wisconsin – he always remained loyal to the city of immigrants, risk takers, and fortune seekers that had given him his first start. Today, Charles August Fey and his famous Liberty Bell slot machine are commemorated by a plaque on San Francisco’s Crown-Zellerbach building, which sits in the spot once occupied by his workshop at Market Street.

Notes

[2] Alois Schmid, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, “Maximilian III. Joseph,” in Neue Deutsche Biographie 16 (), (accessed on October 15, ).

[4] Gerhard Reiter, Geschichte im Landkreis Neu-Ulm (Vöhringen: Stadt Vöhringen, ),

[6] Peter Tamony, “The One-Armed Bandit,” Western Folklore 27 (April ):

[7] This information comes from the San Francisco City Directory for .

[8] Fey, Slot Machines: America’s Favorite Gaming Device, ; Reiter, Geschichte im Landkreis Neu-Ulm, ; Tamony, “The One-Armed Bandit,”

[10] Marshall Fey, Slot Machines: A Pictorial History of the First Years (Reno, NV: Liberty Belle Books, ), ; Reiter, Geschichte im Landkreis Neu-Ulm,

[12] Marshall Fey, “Charles Fey and San Francisco’s Liberty Bell Slot Machine,” California Historical Quarterly 54 (Spring ):

[13] Mark Dickerson and John O’Connor, Gambling as an Addictive Behaviour (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, ), p. 5.

[14] Don Catlin, “Piece of History: It All Began with the Bandit Saloon Slots Machine Family in the Late s,” Strictly Slots (March ): ; Fey, Slot Machines: America’s Favorite Gaming Device, 40; and Howard Herz, “End of an Era: The Liberty Belle,” Casino Chip and Token News (Spring ):

[15] Fey, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, “Charles Fey and San Francisco’s Liberty Bell Slot Machine,” 57; and Edwin Silberstang, The Winner’s Guide to Casino Gambling (New York, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, NY: Henry Holt and Company, ),

[16] Tamony, “The One-Armed Bandit,”

[17] Catlin, “Piece of History,”

[18] Fey, “Charles Fey and San Francisco’s Liberty Bell Slot Machine,”

[19] See, Schultze v. Holtz et al., decided August 23,in Decisions of the Commissioner of Patents and of United States Courts in Patent Cases, . Washington, DC: Government Printing Office,pp. For more on this subject, see “Didn’t Patent It,” Deming Examiner, New Mexico (October ): 3; William N. Thompson, Gambling Bandit Saloon Slots Machine America: An Encyclopedia of History, Issues, and Society (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, ),

[20] Fey, Slot Machines: America’s Favorite Gaming Device, 41; Fey, “Charles Fey and San Francisco’s Liberty Bell Slot Machine,”

[21] Tamony, “The One-Armed Bandit,”

[22] Catlin, “Piece of History,” 22; Fey, Slot Machines: America’s Favorite Gaming Device, ; and Frank Scoblete, Break the One-Armed Bandits: How Bandit Saloon Slots Machine Come out Ahead When You Play the Slots (Chicago, IL: Bonus Books, ),

[23] Fey, Slot Machines: America’s Favorite Gaming Device,

[24] Rufus King, “The Rise and Decline of Coin-Machine Gambling,” The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science 55 (June ):

[25] Marfels, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, “Slot Machine Play in America,”

[26] All current values (in USD) are based on Bandit Saloon Slots Machine H. Williamson, &#;Seven Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, to present,&#; MeasuringWorth,using the Consumer Price Index.

[27] “Slot Machine Men Toss up the Sponge,” The San Francisco Call, February 26,p.

[30] Roger Dunstan, Gambling in California (California State Library: California Research Bureau, January ); Scoblete, Break the One-Armed Bandits, ; and Tamony, “The One-Armed Bandit,”

[33] Lynn Dumeni, The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the s (New York, NY: Hill and Wang, ),

[35] Fey, Slot Machines: America’s Favorite Gaming Device,

[36]The San Francisco Call, April 9,

[37] One exception, of course, being the aforementioned article in which Fey was accused Bandit Saloon Slots Machine being involved with a fund to defeat the anti-gambling bill before the California legislature. This, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, however, was not exactly positive press. “Slot Machine Men Toss up the Sponge,” The San Francisco Call, February 26,p.

[38] Tamony, “The One-Armed Bandit,”

[39] Fey, “Charles Fey and San Francisco’s Liberty Bell Slot Machine,”

[40] “Slot Machines: The Fey Collection on Exhibit at Nevada State Museum,” Nevada State Museums Newsletter, Volume XXXVII, Number 1 (February )

[42] He was proclaimed the “Thomas Edison of Slots” by his industry peers at the convention This Is Vegas 11 Free Spins the National Association of Coin Operated Machine Manufacturers.

Citation Information

The following information is provided for citations.

Article TitleCharles August Fey
Coverage
AuthorTony Wohlers
AuthorEric Schmaltz
Website NameImmigrant Entreprenuership
URLwww.enthralaviation.com
Access DateMarch 13,
PublisherGerman Historical Institute
Original Published DateJune 8,
Date of Last UpdateAugust 22,

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Why Do Slot Machines Say Bar on Their Reels?

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Inanother historic slot machine innovation created by the Mills Novelty Company was the jackpot. When a specific combination of reel symbols resulted from a bet, the slot machine would empty its coin hopper of all coins as a prize.

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Slot machine

Casino gambling machine

"One-Armed Bandit", "Slot Machine", Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, "Fruit machine", and "Pokies" redirect here. For the album, see Royal Ace Casino Review Bandit (album). For the band, see Slot Machine (band). For other uses, see Fruit machine (disambiguation) and Pokey (disambiguation).

Row of digital-based slot machines inside a casino in Las Vegas

Etymology[edit]

History[edit]

"Liberty Bell" machine, manufactured by Charles Fey.

Sittman and Pitt of Brooklyn, New York developed a gambling machine in that was a precursor to the modern slot machine. It contained Esmeralda Slot Machine Examen drums holding a total of 50 card faces and was based on poker. The machine proved extremely popular, and soon many bars in the city had one or more of them. Players would insert Bandit Saloon Slots Machine nickel and pull a lever, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, which would spin the drums and the cards that they held, the player hoping for a good poker hand. There was no direct payout mechanism, so a pair of kings might get the player a free beer, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, whereas a royal flush could pay out cigars or drinks; the prizes were wholly dependent upon what the establishment would offer. To improve the odds for the house, two cards were typically removed from the deck, the ten of spades and the jack of hearts, doubling the odds against winning a royal flush. The drums could also be rearranged to further reduce a player's chance of winning, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine.

Because of the vast number of possible wins in the original poker-based game, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, it proved practically impossible to make a machine capable of awarding an automatic payout for all possible winning combinations. At some time between and ,^[5]Charles Fey of San Francisco, California devised a much simpler automatic mechanism^[6] with three spinning reels containing a total of five symbols: horseshoes, diamonds, spades, hearts and a Liberty Bell; the bell gave the machine its name. By replacing ten cards with five symbols and using three reels instead of five drums, the complexity of reading a win was considerably reduced, allowing Fey to design an effective automatic payout mechanism. Three bells in a row produced the biggest payoff, ten nickels (50¢). Liberty Bell was a huge success and spawned a thriving mechanical gaming device industry. After a few years, the devices were banned in California, but Fey still could not keep up with the demand for them from elsewhere. The Liberty Bell machine was so popular that it was copied by many slot-machine manufacturers. The first of these, also called the "Liberty Bell", was produced by the manufacturer Herbert Mills in Bymany "bell" machines had been installed in most cigar stores, saloons, bowling alleys, brothels and barber shops.^[7] Early machines, including an Liberty Bell, are now part of the Nevada State Museum's Fey Collection.^[8]

The first Liberty Bell machines produced by Mills used the same symbols on the reels as did Charles Fey's original. Soon afterward, another version was produced with patriotic symbols, such as flags and wreaths, on the wheels, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Later, a similar machine called the Operator's Bell was produced that included the option of adding a gum-vending attachment. As the gum offered was fruit-flavored, fruit symbols were placed on the reels: lemons, cherries, oranges and plums. A bell was retained, and a picture of a stick of Bell-Fruit Gum, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, the Mystic Dew Slots Machine of the bar symbol, was also present. This set of symbols proved highly popular and was used by other companies that began to make their own slot machines: Caille, Watling, Jennings and Pace.^[9]

A commonly used technique Bandit Saloon Slots Machine avoid gambling laws in a number of states was Bandit Saloon Slots Machine award food prizes. For this reason, a number of gumball and other vending machines were regarded with mistrust by the courts. The two Iowa cases of State v. Ellis^[10] and State Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Striggles^[11] are both used in criminal law classes to illustrate the concept of reliance upon authority as it relates to the axiomatic ignorantia juris non excusat ("ignorance of the law is no excuse").^[12] In these cases, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, a mint vending machine was declared to be a gambling device because the machine would, by internally manufactured chance, occasionally give the next user a number of tokens exchangeable for more candy. Despite the display of the result of the next use on the machine, the courts ruled that "[t]he machine appealed to the player's propensity to gamble, and that is [a] vice."^[13]

InBally developed the first fully electromechanical slot machine called Money Honey (although earlier machines such as Bally's High Hand draw-poker machine Bandit Saloon Slots Machine exhibited the basics of electromechanical construction as early as ). Its electromechanical workings made Money Honey the first slot machine with a bottomless hopper and automatic payout of up to coins without the help of an attendant.^[14] The popularity of this machine led to the increasing predominance of electronic games, with the side lever soon becoming vestigial.

The first video slot machine was developed in in Kearny Mesa, California by the Las Vegas–based Fortune Coin Co. This machine used a modified inch (48&#;cm) Sony Trinitron color receiver for the display and logic boards for all slot-machine functions. The prototype was mounted in a full-size, show-ready slot-machine cabinet. The first production units went on trial at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel. After some modifications to defeat cheating attempts, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, the video slot machine was approved by the Nevada State Gaming Commission and eventually found popularity on the Las Vegas Big Business Slots Machine and in downtown casinos. Fortune Coin Co. and its video slot-machine technology were purchased by IGT (International Gaming Technology) in ^{[citation needed]}

Operation[edit]

RAY's Ruusu and Tuplapotti slot machines in Finland

Depending on the machine, the player can insert cash or, in "ticket-in, ticket-out" machines, a paper ticket with a barcode, into a designated slot on the machine. The machine is then activated by means of a lever or button (either physical or on a touchscreen), which activates reels that spin and stop to rearrange the symbols. If a player matches a winning combination of symbols, the player earns credits based on the paytable. Symbols vary depending on the theme of the machine. Classic symbols include objects such as fruits, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, bells, and stylized lucky sevens. Most slot games Blackjack Silver 6 Slots Machine a theme, such as a specific aesthetic, location, or character. Symbols and other bonus features of the game are typically aligned with the theme. Some themes are licensed from popular media franchises, including films, television series (including game shows such as Wheel of Fortune), entertainers, and musicians.

Multi-line slot machines have Bandit Saloon Slots Machine more popular since the s. These machines have more than one payline, meaning that visible symbols that are not aligned on the main horizontal may be considered as winning combinations. Traditional three-reel slot machines commonly have one, three, or five paylines while video slot machines may have 9, 15, 25, or as many as different paylines. Most accept variable numbers of credits to Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, with 1 to 15 credits per line being typical. The higher the amount bet, the higher the payout will be if the player wins.

One of the main differences between video Redroo Slot Machine Review machines and reel machines is in the way payouts are calculated. With reel machines, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, the only way to win the maximum jackpot is to roulette online gratis the maximum number of coins (usually three, sometimes four or even five coins per spin). With video machines, the fixed payout values are multiplied by the number of coins per line that is being bet. In other words: on a reel machine, the odds are more favorable if the gambler plays with the maximum number of coins available.^[17] However, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, depending on the structure of the game and its bonus features, some video slots may still include features that improve chances at payouts by making increased wagers.

"Multi-way" games eschew fixed paylines in favor of allowing symbols to pay anywhere, as long as there is at least one in at least three consecutive reels from left to right. Multi-way games Bandit Saloon Slots Machine be configured to allow players to bet by-reel: for example, on a game with a 3x5 pattern (often referred to as a way game), Bandit Saloon Slots Machine one reel allows all three symbols in the first reel to potentially pay, but only the center row pays on the remaining reels (often designated by darkening the unused portions of the reels). Other multi-way games use a 4x5 or 5x5 pattern, where there are up to five symbols in each reel, allowing for up to 1, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, and 3, ways to win respectively. The Australian manufacturer Aristocrat Leisure brands games featuring this system as "Reel Power", "Xtra Reel Power" and "Super Reel Power" respectively. A variation involves patterns where symbols pay adjacent to one another. Most of these games have a hexagonal reel formation, and much like multi-way games, any patterns not played are darkened out of use.

Denominations can range from 1 cent ("penny slots") all the way up to $ or more per credit. The latter are typically known as "high limit" machines, and machines configured to allow for such wagers are often located in dedicated areas (which may have a separate team of attendants to cater to the needs of Bandit Saloon Slots Machine who play there). The machine automatically calculates the number of credits the player receives in exchange Bandit Saloon Slots Machine the cash inserted. Newer machines often allow players to Heros De Hockey Machine A Sous Examen from a selection of denominations on a splash screen or menu.

Terminology[edit]

A bonus is a special feature of the particular game theme, which is activated when certain symbols Cherry Casino No Deposit Bonus Codes in a winning combination. Bonuses and the number of bonus features vary depending upon the game. Some bonus rounds are a special session of free spins (the number of which is often based on the winning combination that triggers the bonus), often with a different or modified set of winning combinations as the main game and/or other multipliers or increased frequencies of symbols, or a "hold and re-spin" mechanic in which specific symbols (usually marked with values of credits or other prizes) are collected and locked in place over a finite number of spins. In other bonus rounds, the player is presented with several items on a screen from which Bandit Saloon Slots Machine choose. As the player chooses items, a number of credits is revealed and awarded. Some bonuses use a mechanical device, such as a spinning wheel, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, that works in conjunction with the bonus to display the amount won.

A candle is a light on top of the slot machine. It flashes to alert the operator that change is needed, hand pay is requested or a potential problem with Bandit Saloon Slots Machine machine. It can be lit by the player by pressing the "service" or "help" button.

Carousel refers to a grouping of slot machines, usually in a circle or oval formation.

A coin hopper is a container where the coins that are immediately available for payouts are held. The hopper is a mechanical device that rotates coins into the coin tray when a player collects credits/coins (by pressing a "Cash Out" button). When a certain preset coin capacity is reached, a coin diverter automatically redirects, or "drops", excess coins into a "drop bucket" or "drop box", Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. (Unused coin hoppers can still be found even on games that exclusively employ Ticket-In, Ticket-Out technology, as a vestige.)

The Wild Sultan Casino : Best Bonus Review 2022 bucket or drop box is a container located in a slot machine's base where excess coins are diverted from the hopper. Typically, a drop bucket is used for low-denomination slot machines and a drop box is used for high-denomination slot machines. A drop box contains a hinged lid with one or more locks whereas a drop bucket does not contain a lid. The contents of drop buckets and drop boxes are collected and Bandit Saloon Slots Machine by the casino on a scheduled basis.

EGM is short for "Electronic Gaming Machine".

A hand pay refers to a payout made by an attendant or at an exchange Golden Ghouls Slots Machine ("cage"), rather than by the slot machine itself. A hand pay occurs when the amount of the payout exceeds the maximum amount that was preset by the slot machine's operator, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Usually, the maximum amount is set at the level where the operator must begin to deduct taxes. Bandit Saloon Slots Machine hand pay could also be necessary as a result of a short pay.

MEAL book (Machine entry authorization log) is a log of the employee's entries into the machine.

Low-level or slant-top slot machines include a stool so the player may sit down. Stand-up or upright slot machines are played while standing.

Optimal play is a payback percentage based on a gambler using the optimal strategy in a skill-based slot machine game.

Payline is a line that crosses through one symbol on each reel, along which a winning combination is evaluated. Classic spinning reel machines usually have up to nine paylines, while video slot machines may have as many as one hundred, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Paylines could be of various shapes (horizontal, vertical, oblique, triangular, zigzag, etc.)

Roll-up is the process of dramatizing a win by playing sounds while the meters count up to the amount that has been won.

Short pay refers to a partial payout made by a slot machine, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine is less than the amount due to the player. This occurs Bandit Saloon Slots Machine the coin hopper has been depleted as a Deep Jungle Slot Machine Review of making earlier payouts to players. The remaining amount due to the player is either paid as a hand pay or an attendant will come and refill the machine.

Taste is a reference to the small amount often paid out to keep a player seated and continuously betting. Only rarely will machines fail to pay even Bandit Saloon Slots Machine minimum out over the course of several pulls.

Display screen of a slot machine in tilt mode

Tilt is a term derived from electromechanical slot machines' "tilt switches", which would make or break a circuit when they were tilted or otherwise tampered with that triggered an alarm. While modern machines no longer have tilt switches, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, any kind of technical fault (door switch in the wrong state, reel motor failure, out of paper, etc.) is still called a "tilt".

Pay table[edit]

Main article: Pay table

Each machine has a table that lists the number of credits the player will receive if the symbols listed on the pay table line up on the pay line of the machine, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Some symbols are wild and can represent many, or all, of the Bandit Saloon Slots Machine symbols to complete a winning line. Especially on older machines, the pay table is listed on the face of the machine, usually above and below the area containing the wheels. On video slot machines, they are usually contained within a help menu, along with information on other features.

Technology[edit]

Reels[edit]

A problem Bandit Saloon Slots Machine three reel machines is that the number of combinations is only cubic Bandit Saloon Slots Machine the original slot machine with three physical reels and 10 symbols on each reel had only 10³ = 1, possible combinations. This limited the manufacturer's ability to offer large jackpots since even the rarest event had a likelihood of %. The maximum theoretical payout, assuming % return to player would be times the bet, but that would leave no room for other pays, making the machine very high risk, and also quite boring.

Although the number of symbols eventually increased to about 22, allowing 10, combinations,^[19] this still limited jackpot sizes as well as the number of possible outcomes.

InInge Telnaes received a patent for a device titled, "Electronic Gaming Device Utilizing a Random Number Generator for Selecting the Reel Stop Positions" (US Patent ),^[20] which states: "It is important to make a machine that is perceived to present greater chances of payoff than it actually has within the legal limitations that games of chance must operate."^[21] The patent was later bought by International Game Technology and has since expired.

A virtual reel that has virtual stops per reel would allow up to ³ = 16, final positions. The manufacturer could choose to offer a $1 million jackpot on a $1 bet, confident that it will only happen, over the long term, once every million plays.

Computerization[edit]

With microprocessors now ubiquitous, the computers inside modern slot machines allow manufacturers to assign a different probability to every symbol on Bandit Saloon Slots Machine reel. To the player, it might appear that a winning symbol was "so close", whereas in fact the probability is much lower.

In the s in the U.K., machines embodying microprocessors became common. These used a number of features to ensure the payout was controlled within the limits of the gambling legislation. As a coin was inserted into the machine, it could go either Bandit Saloon Slots Machine into the cashbox for the benefit of the owner or into a channel that formed Bandit Saloon Slots Machine payout reservoir, with the microprocessor monitoring the number of coins in this channel. The drums themselves were driven by stepper motors, controlled by the processor and with proximity sensors monitoring the position of the drums. A "look-up table" within the software allows the processor to know what symbols were being displayed on the drums to the gambler. This allowed the system to control the level of payout by stopping the drums at positions it had determined. If the payout As the Reels Turn Ep.3 Slots Machine had filled up, the payout became more generous; if nearly empty, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine payout became less so (thus giving good control of the odds).

Video slot machines[edit]

Video slot machines do not use mechanical reels, but use graphical reels on a computerized display. As there are no mechanical constraints on the design of video slot machines, games often use at least five reels, and may also use non-standard layouts. This greatly expands the number of possibilities: a machine can have 50 or more symbols on a reel, giving odds as high as million to 1 against &#; enough for even the largest jackpot. As there are so many combinations possible with five reels, manufacturers do not need to weight the payout symbols (although some may still do so). Instead, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, higher paying symbols will typically appear only once or twice on each reel, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, while more common symbols earning a more frequent payout will appear many times, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Video slot machines usually make more extensive use of multimedia, and can feature more elaborate minigames as bonuses. Modern cabinets typically use flat-panel displays, but cabinets using larger curved screens (which can provide a more immersive experience for the player) are not uncommon.^[22]

Video slot machines typically encourage the player to play multiple "lines": rather than simply taking the middle of the three symbols displayed on each reel, a line could go from top left to the bottom right or any other pattern specified by the manufacturer. As Bandit Saloon Slots Machine symbol is equally likely, there is no difficulty for the manufacturer in allowing the player to take as many Bandit Saloon Slots Machine the possible lines on offer as desire &#; the long-term return to the Bandit Saloon Slots Machine will be the same. The difference for the player is that the more lines they play, the more likely they are to get paid on a given spin (because they are betting more).

To avoid seeming as if the player's money is simply ebbing away (whereas a payout of credits on a single-line machine would be bets and the player would feel they had made a substantial win, on a line machine, it would only be five bets and not seem as significant), Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, manufacturers commonly offer bonus games, which can return many times their bet. The player is encouraged to keep playing to reach the bonus: even if they are losing, the bonus game could allow them to win back their losses.

Random number generators[edit]

All modern machines are designed using pseudorandom number generators ("PRNGs"), which are constantly generating a sequence of simulated random numbers, at a rate of hundreds or perhaps thousands per second. As soon as the "Play" button is pressed, the most recent Bandit Saloon Slots Machine number is used to determine the result. This means that the result varies depending on exactly when the game is played. A fraction of a second earlier or later and the result would be different.

It is important that the machine contains a high-quality RNG implementation. Bandit Saloon Slots Machine all PRNGs must eventually repeat their number sequence^[23] and, if the period is short or the PRNG is otherwise Star Slots Machine, an advanced player may be able to "predict" the next result. Having access to the PRNG code and seed values, Ronald Dale Harris, a former slot machine programmer, discovered equations for specific gambling games like Keno that allowed him to predict what the next set of selected numbers would be based on the previous games played, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine.

Payout percentage[edit]

Slot machines are typically programmed to pay out as winnings 0% to 99% of the money that is wagered by players. This is known as the "theoretical payout percentage" or RTP, "return to player". The minimum theoretical payout percentage varies among jurisdictions and is typically established by law or regulation. For example, the minimum payout in Nevada is 75%, in New Jersey 83%, and in Mississippi 80%. The winning patterns on slot machines &#; the amounts they pay and the frequencies of those payouts &#; are carefully selected to yield a certain fraction of the money paid to the "house" (the operator of Bandit Saloon Slots Machine slot machine) while returning the rest to the players during play. Suppose that a certain slot machine costs $1 per spin and has a return to player (RTP) of 95%. It can be calculated that, over a sufficiently Bandit Saloon Slots Machine period such as 1, spins, the machine will return an average of $, to its players, who have inserted $1, during that time. In this (simplified) example, the slot machine is said to pay out 95%. The operator keeps the remaining $50, Within some EGM development organizations this concept is referred to simply as "par". "Par" also manifests itself to gamblers as promotional techniques: "Our 'Loose Slots' have a 93% payback! Play now!"^{[citation needed]}

A slot machine's theoretical payout percentage is set at the factory when the software is written. Changing the payout percentage after a slot machine has been placed on the gaming floor requires a physical swap of the software or firmware, which Bandit Saloon Slots Machine usually stored on an EPROM but may be loaded onto non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) or even stored on CD-ROM or DVD, depending on the capabilities of the machine and the applicable regulations. Based on current technology, this is a time-consuming Bandit Saloon Slots Machine and as such is done infrequently.^{[citation needed]} In certain jurisdictions, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, such as New Jersey, the EPROM has a tamper-evidentseal and can only be changed in the presence of Gaming Control Board officials. Other jurisdictions, including Nevada, randomly audit slot machines to ensure that they contain only approved software.

Historically, many casinos, both online and offline, have been unwilling to publish individual game RTP figures, making it impossible for the player to know whether they are playing a "loose" or a "tight" game. Since the turn of the century, some information regarding these figures has Bandit Saloon Slots Machine to come into the public domain either through various casinos releasing them—primarily this applies to online casinos—or through studies by independent gambling authorities.^{[citation needed]}

The return to player is not the only statistic that is of interest, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. The probabilities of every payout on the pay table is also critical. For example, consider a hypothetical slot machine with a dozen different values on the pay table. However, the probabilities of getting all the payouts are zero except the largest one. If the payout is 4, times the input amount, and it happens every 4, times on average, the return to player is exactly %, but the game would be dull to play. Also, most people would Bandit Saloon Slots Machine win anything, and having entries on the paytable that have a return of zero would be deceptive. Bandit Saloon Slots Machine these individual probabilities are closely guarded secrets, it is possible that the advertised machines with high return to player simply increase the probabilities of these jackpots. The casino could legally place machines of a similar style payout and advertise that some machines have % return to player. The added advantage is that these large jackpots increase the excitement of the other players.

The table of probabilities for a specific machine is called the Probability and Accounting Report or Slots Plus Casino Review sheet, also PARS commonly understood as Paytable and Reel Strips. Mathematician Michael Shackleford revealed the PARS for one commercial slot machine, an original International Gaming TechnologyRed White and Blue machine. This game, in its original form, is obsolete, so these specific probabilities do not apply. He only published the odds after a fan of his sent him some information provided on a slot machine that was posted on a machine in the Netherlands. The psychology of the machine design is quickly revealed. There are 13 possible payouts ranging from to 2, The payout comes every 8 plays. The payout comes every 33 plays, whereas the payout comes every plays, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Most players assume the likelihood increases proportionate to the payout. The one mid-size payout that is designed to give the player a thrill is the payout. It is programmed to occur an average of once every plays. The payout is high enough to create excitement, but not high enough that it makes it likely that the player will take their winnings and abandon the game. More than likely the player began the game with at least 80 times his bet (for instance there are 80 quarters in $20). In contrast the payout occurs only on average of once every 6, plays. The highest payout of 2, occurs only on average of once every 64³ =plays since the machine has 64 virtual stops. The player who continues to feed the machine is likely to have several mid-size payouts, but unlikely to have a large payout. He quits after he is bored or has exhausted his bankroll.^{[citation needed]}

Despite their confidentiality, occasionally a PAR sheet is posted on a website. They have limited value to the player, because usually a machine will have 8 to 12 different possible programs with Bandit Saloon Slots Machine payouts. In addition, slight variations of each machine (e.g., with double jackpots or five times play) are always being developed. The casino operator can choose which EPROM chip to install in any particular machine to select the payout desired. The result is that there is not really such a thing as a high payback type of machine, since every machine potentially has multiple settings. From October to Februarycolumnist Michael Shackleford obtained PAR sheets for five different nickel machines; four IGT games Austin Powers, Fortune Perfect Gems Slots Machine, Leopard Spots and Bandit Saloon Slots Machine of Fortune and one game manufactured by WMS; Reel 'em In. Without revealing the casino gif information, he developed a program that would allow him to determine with usually less than a dozen plays on each machine which EPROM chip was installed. Then he did a survey of Sur Yggdrasil Gaming machines in 70 different casinos in Las Vegas. He averaged the data, and assigned an average payback percentage to the machines in each casino, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. The resultant list was widely publicized for marketing purposes (especially by the Palms casino which had the top ranking).^{[citation needed]}

One reason Bandit Saloon Slots Machine the slot machine is so profitable to a casino is that the player must play the high house edge and high payout wagers along with the low house edge and low payout wagers. In a more traditional wagering game like craps, the player knows that certain wagers have almost a 50/50 chance of winning or losing, but they only pay a limited multiple of the original bet (usually no higher than three times), Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Other bets have a higher house edge, but the player is rewarded with a bigger win (up to thirty times in craps). The player can choose what kind of wager he wants to make. A slot machine does not afford such an Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Theoretically, the operator could make these probabilities available, or allow the player to choose which one so that the player is free to make a choice. However, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, no operator has ever enacted this strategy. Different machines have different maximum payouts, but without knowing the odds of getting the jackpot, there is no rational way to differentiate.

In many markets where central monitoring and control systems are used to link machines for auditing and security purposes, usually in wide area networks of multiple venues and thousands of machines, player return must usually be changed from a Bandit Saloon Slots Machine computer rather than at each machine. A range of percentages is set in the game software and selected remotely.

Inthe Nevada Gaming Commission began working with Las Vegas casinos on technology that would allow the casino's management Bandit Saloon Slots Machine change the game, the odds, and the payouts remotely, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. The change cannot be done instantaneously, but only after the selected machine has been idle for at least four minutes. After the change is made, the machine must be locked to new players for four minutes and display an on-screen message informing potential players that a change is being made.^[24]

Linked machines[edit]

In some cases multiple machines are linked across multiple casinos. In these cases, the machines may be owned by the manufacturer, who is responsible for paying the jackpot. The casinos lease the machines rather than owning them Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Casinos in New Jersey, Nevada, and South Dakota now offer multi-state progressive jackpots, which now offer bigger jackpot pools.^[26]^[27]

Fraud[edit]

Modern slot machines are controlled by EPROM computer chips and, in large casinos, coin Bandit Saloon Slots Machine have become obsolete in favor of bill acceptors. These machines and their bill acceptors are designed with advanced anti-cheating and anti-counterfeiting measures and are difficult to defraud. Early computerized slot machines were sometimes defrauded through the use of cheating devices, such as the "slider", "monkey Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, "lightwand" and "the tongue". Many of these old cheating devices Bandit Saloon Slots Machine made by the late Tommy Glenn Carmichael, a slot machine fraudster who reportedly stole over $5 million.^[29] In the modern day, computerized slot machines are fully deterministic and thus outcomes can be sometimes successfully predicted.^[30]

Skill stops[edit]

Skill stop buttons predated the Bally electromechanical slot machines of the s and s. They appeared on mechanical slot machines manufactured by Mills Novelty Co. as early as the mid s. These machines had modified The Beginners Guide to Online Casinos arms, which allowed them to be released from the timing bar, earlier than in a normal play, simply by pressing the buttons on the front of the machine, located between each reel.

"Skill stop" buttons were added to some slot machines by Zacharias Anthony in the early s. These enabled the player to stop each reel, allowing a degree of "skill" so as to satisfy the New Jersey gaming laws of the day which required that players were able to control the game in some way. The original conversion was applied to approximately 50 late-model Bally slot machines. Gonzos Quest Slots Machine the typical machine stopped the reels automatically in less than 10 seconds, weights were added to the mechanical timers to prolong the automatic stopping of the reels. By the time the New Jersey Alcoholic Beverages Commission (ABC) had approved the conversion for use in New Jersey arcades, the word was out and every other distributor began adding skill stops. The machines were a huge hit on the Jersey Shore and the remaining unconverted Bally machines were destroyed as they had become Bandit Saloon Slots Machine obsolete.^{[citation needed]}

Legislation[edit]

United States[edit]

The territory of Puerto Rico places significant restrictions on slot machine ownership, but the law is widely flouted and slot machines are common in bars and coffeeshops.^[31]

In regards to tribal casinos located on Native American reservations, slot machines played against the house and operating independently from a centralized computer system are classified as "Class III" gaming by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), and sometimes promoted as "Vegas-style" slot machines.^[32] In order to offer Class III gaming, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, tribes must enter into a compact (agreement) with the state that is approved by the Department of the Interior, which may contain restrictions on the types and quantity of such games. As a workaround, some casinos may operate slot machines as "Class II" games—a category that includes games where players play exclusively against at least one other opponent and not the house, such as bingo or any related games (such as pull-tabs). In these cases, the reels are an entertainment display with a pre-determined outcome based on a centralized Bandit Saloon Slots Machine played against other players. Under the IGRA, Class II games are regulated by individual tribes and the National Indian Gaming Commission, and do not require any additional approval if the state already permits tribal gaming.^[33]^[34]

Private ownership[edit]

See also: United States slot machine ownership regulations by state

Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia place no restrictions on private ownership of slot machines, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Conversely, in Connecticut, Hawaii, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Tennessee, private ownership of any slot machine is completely prohibited. The remaining states allow slot machines of a certain age (typically 25–30 years) or slot machines manufactured before a specific date.

Canada[edit]

The Government of Canada has minimal involvement in gambling beyond the Canadian Criminal Code. In essence, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, the term "lottery scheme" used in the code means slot machines, bingo and table games normally associated with a casino. These fall under the jurisdiction of the province or territory without reference to the federal government; in practice, all Canadian provinces operate gaming boards that oversee lotteries, casinos and video lottery terminals under their jurisdiction.

OLG piloted a classification system for slot machines at the Grand River Raceway developed by University of Waterloo professor Kevin Harrigan, as part of its PlaySmart initiative for responsible Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Inspired by nutrition labels on foods, they displayed metrics such as volatility and frequency of payouts.^[36] OLG has also deployed electronic gaming machines with pre-determined outcomes based on a bingo or pull-tab game, initially branded as "TapTix", which visually resemble slot machines.^[37]

Australia[edit]

In the Australian Productivity Commission reported that nearly half Australia's gaming machines were in New South Wales. At the time, 21% of all the gambling machines in the world were operating in Australia and, on a per capita basis, Australia had roughly five times as many gaming machines as the United States. Australia ranks 8th in total number of gaming machines after Japan, U.S.A., Italy, U.K., Spain and Germany. This primarily is because gaming machines have been legal in the state Wild Jackpots Casino No Deposit Bonus Codes New South Wales since ; over time, the number of machines has grown to 97, (at Decemberincluding the Australian Capital Territory). By way of comparison, the U.S, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. State of Nevada, which legalised gaming including slots several decades before N.S.W., hadslots operating.^[40]

Revenue from gaming machines in pubs and clubs accounts for more than half of the $4 billion in gambling revenue collected by state governments in fiscal year &#;^{[citation needed]}

In Queensland, gaming machines in pubs and clubs must provide a return rate of 85%, while machines located in casinos must provide a return rate of 90%.^{[citation needed]} Most other states have similar provisions. In Victoria, gaming machines must provide a minimum return rate of 87% (including jackpot contribution), including machines in Crown Casino. As of December 1,Victoria banned gaming machines that accepted $ notes; all gaming machines made since comply with this rule. This new law also banned machines with an automatic play option. One exception exists in Crown Casino for any player with a VIP loyalty card: they can still insert $ notes and use an autoplay feature (whereby the machine will automatically play until credit is exhausted or Mayan Goddess Slots Machine player intervenes). All gaming machines in Victoria have an information screen accessible to the user by pressing the "i key" button, showing the game rules, paytable, return to player percentage, and the top and bottom five combinations with their odds. These combinations are stated to be played on a minimum bet (usually 1 credit per line, with 1 line or reel played, although some newer machines do not have an option to play 1 line; some machines may only allow maximum lines to be played), excluding Japanese Fortune Slots Machine wins.

Poker machine playing is a mindless, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, repetitive and insidious form of gambling which has many undesirable features. It requires no thought, no skill or social contact. The odds are never about winning. Watching people playing the machines over long periods of time, the impressionistic evidence Bandit Saloon Slots Machine least is that they are addictive to many people. Historically poker machines have been banned from Western Australia and we consider that, in the public interest, they should stay banned.

Nick Xenophon was elected on an independent No Pokies ticket in the South Australian Legislative Council at the South Australian state election on percent, re-elected at the election on percent, and elected to the Australian Senate at the federal election on percent. Independent candidate Andrew Wilkie, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine anti-pokies campaigner, was elected to the Australian House of Representatives seat of Denison at the federal election. Wilkie was one of four crossbenchers who supported the GillardLabor government following the hung parliament result. Wilkie immediately began forging ties with Xenophon as soon as it was apparent that he was elected. In exchange for Wilkie's support, the Labor government are attempting to Bandit Saloon Slots Machine precommitment technology for high-bet/high-intensity poker machines, against opposition from the Tony AbbottCoalition and Clubs Australia.

During the COVID pandemic ofevery establishment in the country that facilitated poker machines was shut down, in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus, bringing Australia's usage of poker machines effectively to zero.^[43]

Russia[edit]

In Russia, "slot clubs" appeared quite late, only in BeforeBandit Saloon Slots Machine, slot machines were only in casinos and small shops, but later slot Panda Gold 10.000 Slots Machine began appearing all over the country. The most popular and numerous were "Vulcan " and "Taj Mahal". Since when gambling establishments were banned, almost all slot clubs Bandit Saloon Slots Machine and are found only in a specially authorized gambling zones.

United Kingdom[edit]

Row of old fruit machines in Teignmouth Pier, Devon

Slot machines are covered by the Gambling Actwhich superseded the Gaming Act ^[44]

Slot machines in the U.K. are categorised by definitions produced by the Gambling Commission as part of the Gambling Act of

Machine category	Maximum stake (from January )	Maximum prize (from January )
A	Unlimited	Unlimited
B1	£5	£10, or if the game has a progressive jackpot that can be £20,
B2	£ (in multiples of £10)	£
B3	£2	£
B3A	£1	£
B4	£2	£
C	£1	£ or £ If jackpot is repeated
D (various)	10p to £8	£8 cash or £50 non-cash

Category A[edit]

Category A games were defined in preparation for the planned "Super Casinos". Despite a lengthy bidding process with Manchester being chosen as the single planned location, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, the development was cancelled soon after Gordon Brown became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. As a result, there are no lawful Category A games in the U.K.

Category B[edit]

Category B games are divided into subcategories. The differences between B1, B3 and Bandit Saloon Slots Machine games are mainly the stake and prizes as defined in the above table. Category B2 games &#; Fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) &#; have quite different stake and prize rules: FOBTs are mainly found in licensed betting shops, or bookmakers, usually in the form of electronic roulette.

The games are based on a random number generator; thus each game's probability of getting the jackpot is independent of any other game: Bandit Saloon Slots Machine are all equal. If a pseudorandom number generator is used instead of a truly random one, probabilities are not independent since each number is determined at least in part by the one generated before it.

Category C[edit]

Fruit machines in the U.K. almost universally have the following features, generally selected at random using a pseudorandom number generator:

A player (known in the industry as a punter) may be given the opportunity to hold one or more reels before spinning, meaning they will not be spun but instead retain their displayed symbols yet otherwise count normally for that play. This can sometimes increase the chance of winning, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, especially if two or more reels are held.
A player may also be given a number of nudges following a spin (or, in some machines, as a result in a subgame). A nudge is a step rotation of a reel chosen by the player (the machine may not allow all reels to be nudged for a particular play).
Cheats can also be made available on the internet or through emailed newsletters to subscribers. These cheats give the player the impression of an advantage, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, whereas in reality the payout percentage remains exactly the same. The most widely used cheat is known as hold after a nudge and increases the chance that the player will win following an unsuccessful nudge. Machines from the early s did not advertise the concept of hold after a nudge when this feature was first introduced, it became so well known amongst players and widespread amongst new Bandit Saloon Slots Machine releases that it is now well-advertised on the machine during play. This is characterized by messages on the display such as DON'T HOLD ANY or LET 'EM SPIN and is a designed feature of the machine, not a cheat at all. Holding the same pair three times on three consecutive spins also gives a guaranteed win on most machines that offer holds.

It is known for machines to pay out multiple jackpots, one after the other (this is known as Bandit Saloon Slots Machine "repeat") but each jackpot requires a new game to be played so as not to violate the law about the maximum payout on Bachelorette Party Slots Machine single play. Typically this involves the player only pressing the Start button at the "repeat" prompt, for which a single credit is taken, regardless of whether this causes the reels to spin or not. Machines are also known to intentionally set aside money, which is later awarded in a series of wins, known as Bandit Saloon Slots Machine "streak". The minimum payout percentage is 70%, with pubs often setting the payout at around 78%.

Japan[edit]

Further information: Pachinko

The machines are regulated with integrated circuits, and have six different levels Bandit Saloon Slots Machine the odds of a The levels provide a rough outcome of between 90% to % (% for skilled players). Japanese slot machines are "beatable". Parlor operators naturally set Jumping Beans Slot Machine Review machines to simply collect money, but intentionally place a few paying machines on the floor so that there will be at least someone winning,^{[citation needed]} encouraging players on the losing machines to keep gambling, using the psychology Money Night Slot Machine the gambler's fallacy.

Despite the many varieties of pachislot machines, there are certain rules and regulations put forward by the Security Electronics and Communication Technology Association (保安電子通信技術協会), an affiliate of the National Police Agency. For example, there must be three reels. All reels must be accompanied by buttons which allow players to manually stop them, reels may not spin faster than 80 RPM, and reels must stop within seconds of a button press. In practice, this means that machines cannot let reels slip more than 4 symbols. Other rules include Bandit Saloon Slots Machine 15 coin payout cap, a 50 credit cap on machines, a 3 coin maximum bet, and other such regulations.^{[citation needed]}

Three other unique features of Pachisuro machines are "stock", "renchan", and tenjō (天井). On many machines, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, when enough money to afford a Jackpot Jamba Slot Machine Examen is taken in, the bonus is not immediately awarded. Typically the game merely stops making the reels slip off the bonus symbols for a few games. If the player fails to hit the bonus during these "standby games", it is added to the "stock" for later collection. Many current games, after finishing a bonus round, set the probability to release additional stock (gained from earlier players failing to get a bonus last time the machine stopped making the reels slip for a bit) very high for the first few games. As a result, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, a Bandit Saloon Slots Machine player may get to play several bonus rounds in a row (a "renchan"), making payouts of 5, or even 10, coins possible. The lure of "stock" waiting in Zeus 3 Slot machine, and the possibility of "renchan" tease the gambler to keep feeding the Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. To tease them further, there is a tenjō (ceiling), a maximum limit on the number of games between "stock" release. For example, if the tenjō is 1, and Bandit Saloon Slots Machine number of games played since the last bonus is 1, the player is guaranteed to release a bonus within just 10 games, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine.

Because of the "stock", Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, "renchan", Trick or Spin Slots Machine tenjō systems, it is possible to make money by simply playing machines on which someone has just lost a huge amount of money. This is called being a "hyena". They are easy to recognize, roaming the aisles for a "kamo" ("sucker" in English) to leave his machine.

To address these social issues, a new regulation (Version ) was adopted in which caps the maximum amount of "stock" a machine can hold Bandit Saloon Slots Machine around 2,–3, coins' worth of bonus games. Moreover, all pachisuro machines must be re-evaluated for regulation compliance every three years. Version came out inso that means all those machines with the up to 10, coin payouts will be removed from service by

Jackpot disputes[edit]

Electronic slot machines can malfunction. When the displayed amount is smaller than the one it is supposed to be, the error usually goes unnoticed. When it happens the other way, disputes are likely.^[45] Below are some notable arguments caused by the owners of the Bitcoin Casino saying that the displayed amounts were far larger than the ones patrons should get.

United States of America[edit]

Two such cases occurred in casinos in Colorado inwhere software errors led to indicated jackpots of $11 million and $42 million.^{[citation needed]} Analysis of machine records by the state Gaming Commission revealed faults, with the true jackpot being substantially smaller.^[46] State gaming Bandit Saloon Slots Machine did not require a casino to honour payouts in that case.

Vietnam[edit]

On October 25,while a Vietnamese American man, Ly Sam, was playing a slot machine in the Palazzo Club The Nice List Slots Machine the Sheraton Saigon Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, it displayed that he had hit a jackpot of US$55,^[47] The casino refused parkwest casino pay, saying it was a machine error, Mr Ly sued the casino.^[48] On January 7,the District 1 People's Court in Ho Bandit Saloon Slots Machine Minh City decided that the casino had to pay the amount Mr Ly claimed in full, not trusting the error report from an inspection company hired by the casino.^[49] Both sides appealed thereafter, and Mr Ly asked for interest while the casino refused to pay him.^[50] In January,the news reported that the case had been settled out of court, and Mr Ly had received an undisclosed sum.^[51]

Problem gambling and slot machines[edit]

Mills Novelty Co. Horse Head Bonus antique slot machine

Mike Dixon, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Waterloo,^[53] studies the relationship between slot players and machines. In one of Dixon's studies, players were observed experiencing heightened arousal Slot Machine Myths the sensory stimulus coming from the machines. They "sought to show that these 'losses disguised as wins' (LDWs) would be as arousing as wins, and Slot Machine Myths arousing crown casino reopen regular losses."^[54]

Eye-tracking research Bandit Saloon Slots Machine local bookkeepers' offices in the UK suggested that, in slots games, the reels dominated players' visual attention, and that problem gamblers looked more frequently at amount-won messages than did those without gambling problems.^[57]

The 60 Minutes report "Slot Machines: The Big Gamble"^[58] focused on the link between slot machines and gambling addiction.

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^State v. Ellis. IowaN.W. (Iowa, ). (citing to Ferguson v, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. State of Indiana, Ind.99 Cadabrus casino. E. (); City of Moberly v. Deskin, Mo. App.S. W. ().)
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^Collier, Roger (1 July ). "Do slot machines play mind games with gamblers?". Canadian Medical Association Journal. (1): 23–4. doi/cmaj PMC&#; PMID&#;
^Thompson, Andrew (). "Slot machines perfected addictive gaming. Now, tech wants their tricks". The Verge. Retrieved
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^Richtel, Matt (12 April ). "From the Back Office, a Casino Can Change the Slot Machine in Seconds". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 December
^"The latest community slot games offer play mechanics and features designed to overcome the shortfalls of previous products and concepts". Casino Journal. Retrieved
^"Division of Gaming Enforcement Announces Approval for Interstate Progressive Slot Machines"(PDF). New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.
^"Division of Gaming Enforcement Announces Interstate Progressive Slots Link with Nevada"(PDF). New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.
^"Slot machine cheat bilked casinos with ingenious gadgets". www.enthralaviation.com. Retrieved
^LaPointe, Michael (). "The Edison of the Slot Machines". The Paris Review. Retrieved
^Koerner, Brendan (8 February ), Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. "Russians Engineer a Brilliant Slot Machine Cheat—And Casinos Have No Fix". Wired. Retrieved 7 February
^Coto, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, Danica (August 13, ). "Illegal slot machines threaten Puerto Rico casinos". Deseret News. Retrieved June 23,
^www.enthralaviation.com (). "10 Casinos You Can Gamble at in South Florida". South Florida Reporter. Retrieved
^Dryer, Carolyn. "Slot machines ordered; Class II casinos explained". The Glendale Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Retrieved
^"New Slot Machines Without Strings", Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved
^Minor, Robyn L. "Kentucky Downs kicks off instant racing". Bowling Bandit Saloon Slots Machine Daily News. Retrieved
^Guesgen, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine (). "Can 'calorie labels' on slot machines promote healthier gambling?". www.enthralaviation.com. Retrieved : CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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^"Man sues hotel over $ mil in prize money". ThanhNien News. Retrieved
^"US $ million jackpot lawsuit delayed". ThanhNien News. Retrieved
^"Vietnamese-American's suit to claim $ mln jackpot at Sheraton casino to go to trial", Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. ThanhNien News. Retrieved
^"Vietnamese American wins $55 mil casino Bandit Saloon Slots Machine case". ThanhNien News. Retrieved
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^Dixon, Mike J.; Harrigan, Kevin A.; Sandhu, Rajwant; Collins, Karen; Fugelsang, Jonathan A. (October ). "Losses disguised as wins in modern multi-line video slot machines: Losses disguised as wins". Addiction, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. (10): – doi/jx. PMID&#;
^Breen, Robert B; Zimmerman, M. (). "Rapid Onset of Pathological Gambling in Machine Gamblers". Journal of Gambling Studies. 18 (1): 31– doi/A PMID&#; S2CID&#;
^Breen, Robert B (). "Rapid Onset of Pathological Gambling in Machine Gamblers: A Replication". ECommunity: The International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. 2 (1): 44–
^Rogers, R. D., Butler, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, J., Millard, S., Cristino, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, F., Davitt, L. I., & Leek, E, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine. C. (). A scoping investigation of eye-tracking in Electronic Gambling Machine (EGM) play. Bangor: Bangor University. Retrieved from: www.enthralaviation.com
^"Slot Machines: The Big Gamble". 60 Minutes. 7 January CBS. Retrieved 8 May

Bibliography[edit]

Brisman, Andrew. The American Mensa Guide to Casino Gambling: Winning Ways (Stirling, ) ISBN&#;X
Grochowski, John. The Slot Machine Answer Book: How They Work, Bandit Saloon Slots Machine, How They've Changed, and How to Overcome the House Advantage (Bonus Books, ) ISBN&#;
Legato, Frank. How to Win Millions Playing Slot Machines! Or Lose Trying (Bonus Books, ) ISBN&#;

External links[edit]

Источник: [www.enthralaviation.com]

Bandit Saloon Slots Machine - read this

Introduction

Family Background

Business Development

The Rise of the Public Crusade against Slot Machines and Gambling

The Start of Prohibition

Social Status, Family, and Personality

Immigrant Entrepreneurship

Conclusion

Notes

Citation Information

Slot machine

Etymology[edit]

History[edit]

Operation[edit]

Terminology[edit]

Pay table[edit]

Technology[edit]

Reels[edit]

Computerization[edit]

Video slot machines[edit]

Random number generators[edit]

Payout percentage[edit]

Linked machines[edit]

Fraud[edit]

Skill stops[edit]

Legislation[edit]

United States[edit]

Private ownership[edit]

Canada[edit]

Australia[edit]

Russia[edit]

United Kingdom[edit]

Category A[edit]

Category B[edit]

Category C[edit]

Japan[edit]

Jackpot disputes[edit]

United States of America[edit]

Vietnam[edit]

Problem gambling and slot machines[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

External links[edit]

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Introduction

Family Background

Business Development

The Rise of the Public Crusade against Slot Machines and Gambling

The Start of Prohibition

Immigrant Entrepreneurship

Conclusion

Notes

Citation Information

Bandit Bar Penguin Slot Machine

Successful

Why Do Slot Machines Say Bar on Their Reels?

Introduction to Slot Machines Say Bar

Keep Reading … or Watch Instead!

Or &#; Listen Instead!

Bar Reel Symbols