Slot machines grew in popularity and found their way to casinos, pubs and entertainment venues in many countries around the world. A lot of the time, the symbols were themed after fruits because the earliest prizes you could win were fruit-flavoured pieces of chewing gum. To make the game even simpler, playing cards were removed from the reels and a smaller number of themed symbols were added instead. Gaming machines weren’t advanced enough to handle the many different combinations you could get from a hand with five cards, so two hands were dropped. In poker, your objective is to form the best hand possible with five cards. They had a single row and if the right combination of symbols appeared on this row, you’d win.īelieve it or not, slot machines were actually derived from poker games.
They were large gaming machines that required you to pull a lever on the side to spin the drum, which was made up of three separate reels. The very first slot machines appeared in the late 19th century in New York.
