Slots and pokies are several of the oldest gambling games within the modern world. They saw their beginnings at the start of the 20th century, and have attracted a vast audience ever since. Here is an overview of slot machine history and just how they have developed through the years.

The first ever version of the slot machine was seen in 1891. Pittman and Sachs created a machine with five drums, each showing poker hand symbols. When players would win at these games, the machine might not pay out; rather, the bar housing them would provide players with drinks.

It might be four more years before Charles Fey would create the version of the slot machine with which we are most acquainted today. The machine provided players with cash payouts when it revealed matching symbols. The popularity of these games caught on very quickly, until anti-gambling groups enacted a ban on slot machines in the early twentieth century.

The ban only lasted a couple of years, and it was not long before slots became popular again in casinos. It was during the 1950s that slot machines started to become popular across the world. In 1953, Australian gaming company Aristocrat took note of the new trend and decided to manufacture its own brand of electronic gaming machines called pokies. The business’s first machine was called the ‘Clubman’.

Though it will be a long time before we would see online slots, casinos in Las Vegas started making electronic slot machines, moving away from the average, mechanical slot games that had become popular through the years. These machines were safer than mechanical slots and made it much harder for people to cheat casinos. During this time, electronic slots also saw the invention of the random number generator which made playing slots much more unpredictable.

Over the next few decades, slots would remain the same. It would not be until the turn of the Century that we begin seeing the creation of online slots. The first online slots games were seen around 2001, when the first internet casinos went live. Companies like Microgaming got on the ground floor, creating some of the very first online slot machines available to the general public.

For the past 10 years, slots have become several of the best games at online casinos, prev as well as making up over 80% of land-based casino revenue. Within the online world, players can find hundreds of different online slots games, many of which feature fun and inventive themes. Players also are able to find a wide variety of branded and themed slots games, featuring innovative gaming technology.