The credit for the invention of the fruit machine goes to one Charles Fey of San Francisco in 1887. His machine, of course, was far simpler than anything seen in today’s electro-mechanical games, let alone online fruit machines. Fey’s machine featured three spinning reels with the images of spades, hearts, diamonds, horseshoes and a Liberty Bell, which was the game’s namesake (his prototype is still on display in Reno, Nevada). Earlier reel machines could play out a winning “hand”, but had no payout mechanism; wins were usually rewarded with a free beer. The thing that made the Liberty Bell special was the fact that it paid out in cash – as much as ten nickels for three bells.
Simulated Card Games
The idea was to simulate a poker hand, but the use of three reels and five symbols made for an easier payout mechanism. So popular were Liberty Bell machines that, even after the devices were banned in California, expansion of the industry Fey had uncorked continued unabated. Fey himself was unable to meet demand for his machines, and by 1907, large manufacturers back East were copying his design. In no time at all, slot machines with bells were everywhere, from bordellos to barber shops.
Courts Come Down On Fruit Machines
Before long, states were passing laws that prohibited gambling machines, and the enterprising companies that produced them had to shift gears. Instead of paying out in nickels and dimes, machines were equipped to dispense fruit-flavored gum. This was frowned upon by the courts as a deliberate end-run, causing them to crusade even against candy vendors whose machines would occasionally give out bonus tokens that could be put back in the machine. In two different Iowa cases, courts found that “the machine appealed to the player’s propensity to gamble, and that is [a] vice.”
In barely a century, Charles Fey’s simple coin-operated card game has amazingly evolved into today’s online fruit machine games, which are as brilliant and colorful as the designer’s imagination can make them. The one-armed bandit may have gone digital, but the spirit of the game remains the same.