Video Slots - Modern Slot Games with Bonuses & Features

Online casinos with a mass of various entertainment for every taste, without even leaving home, are no longer a curiosity. Technology allows spending time on online gambling not only at a computer but also playing mobile slot machines for money practically anywhere there is internet. If two or three hundred years ago casinos were visited to play roulette or cards, then gradually, in the 20th century, slots displaced all other gambling games in popularity. Simplicity, excitement, colorfulness, and the probability of high winnings did their job.

🎰 Slot machines, although the youngest variety of gambling compared to cards or dice which count thousands of years in gambling circles, are the sector where huge capital is invested in the development and organization of playing platforms, both online and offline. This is not surprising, as  revenue from slots installed in casinos accounts for about 70% of the entire profit of the establishment . Next will be a story about when slot machines appeared, how they developed and evolved, what they represent now, and what changes they should receive in the near future.

🌀 We begin our story about the evolution of slots.👇

🔩 The First Slot Machines

No matter what casino you enter now, whether online or a land-based establishment, you will definitely encounter a huge assortment of slot machines. Especially  a wonderful selection of slots from various manufacturers is now present in online casinos . The digital space is distinguished by significant capacity compared to physical square meters. In comparison to dozens or even a couple of hundred machines in a land-based gaming hall, about two thousand games are available in every reputable and licensed online casino.

It is generally accepted that it all started with Charles Fey’s mechanical slot machine. For some reason, this name appears first when it comes to the history of slot machines. As for one-armed bandits, there is undoubtedly some truth to this. But a slot machine is not only reels with fruits or other symbols that begin to spin after pressing a lever. These are various modifications, execution mechanisms, and ways of realizing winning opportunities. A modern gambler understands what is being discussed more than enough, living at a time when game creators compete with each other and try to attract players with new elements in functionality, bonus games, and visualization methods. But people of the past were also good at inventions.

🎊 Prototypes of Slot Machines in the Middle Ages

Let’s move away from the established templates of articles on gambling topics and start the history of slot machines not from the end of the 19th century, but a few hundred years earlier.

Of course, one could go deeper,📖 recalling earlier gambling games like tric-trac and calling it the first slot machine, but the absence of mechanics in this entertainment does not allow doing so. Which cannot be said about roulette. Why is it not a slot machine? Only becoming such an individual game due to some features of mathematics and betting acceptance, it occupied its niche in the space of gambling houses. But in general, especially before the appearance of electrical elements and software algorithms, roulette fits many criteria of a slot machine, and in the age of electronics 🔌 and IT technologies 💻, many slots with various types of roulette appeared.

And only after mentioning such types of gambling entertainment in the story about the history of slot machines, considering them as a certain abstract prototype that became the basis for the further evolution of mechanized gambling machines, can we move on to the inventions of the 19th century that brought variety to the casino assortment. 🌆🎆🎲🃏🎰

⚙️ The First Mechanical Slot

[♥]]] [♦]]] [♣]]] [♠]]] The card game poker became widespread on the American continent. In the USA, even many children know the basic rules of the game and often spend time playing it with family or friends.

The owners of the company “Sittman & Pitt” from New York came up with the idea to mechanize the process so that a person wishing to play did not need an opponent or company, but the probability of winning in case of a prize combination remained. Under their leadership, a mechanism was assembled consisting of five drums into special grooves of which cards were attached. When the mechanism was set in motion, the drums spun and the cards seemed to be shuffled. For this, it was necessary to insert a coin. That is, a coin acceptor was already present.

Such slot machines were acquired by bar owners, as with their help they could additionally profit from visitors. The fact is that  the device allowed adjusting the result of the game – owners removed a couple of significant cards, which significantly reduced the chances of collecting a high-value combination .🤨

Also, due to current legislation prohibiting gambling for money, winnings were usually paid not in cash, but in 🚬cigarettes, 🍸alcoholic drinks, and 🍬other goods equivalent to the collected combination. What would serve as a payout was also decided by the owners themselves.

There is an assumption that the inventor of the first One Armed Bandit slot machine was inspired by the idea precisely after seeing mechanical poker.

🔔 Liberty Bell – The First One-Armed Bandit

In 1895, at the San Francisco Patent Office, Charles Fey received a patent for his mechanical slot called the Liberty Bell. You can verify that the appearance is somewhat similar to a poker machine by comparing them in images.

But Fey somewhat improved the mechanism and made the game understandable even to a 3-year-old child. If playing the previous machine required knowing combinations, then in the one-armed bandit everything was even simpler: you throw a coin, press a lever, and hope that identical pictures stop on the reels after spinning. Fey decided to reduce the number of reels to three, which also greatly simplified the game.

 The first one-armed bandit featured 5 symbols : card suits – ♥ hearts, ♠ spades, and ♦ diamonds, 🧲 a horseshoe, and 🔔 a bell. The biggest prize was given for three bells. Card suits were valued less, and dropping two horseshoes allowed getting a small reward or a free spin.

Charles Fey added to the machine what was not yet in the poker machine: the coin acceptor did not accept fake nickels or pennies, and an additional mechanism provided automatic payout of winnings.

In ordinary public establishments where the machine stood, cash winnings were replaced by 🍬 gum, 🍭 lollipops, and 🍫 chocolates. Sometimes a special prize was announced for bells, but this was also a commodity. Because of this, the gambling slot in those years was often called a vending machine, and this helped bypass the laws of many states directed against gambling 🔕 and allowed installing mechanical machines for play not only in bars, saloons, and shops, but in almost all public establishments.

In casinos that received a license to conduct their activities, the device for automatic payout was regarded as a significant advantage, since the gaming machine did not require additional personnel and collected the cash register independently. Every enterprising gambling organizer of the late 19th – early 20th century tried to install such a mechanical slot. Demand for the novelty in the gambling sphere began to rise.

The 19th century had not yet ended when Fey received a cooperation offer, the acceptance of which allowed gaming machines to spread rapidly throughout the United States, as well as penetrate gambling houses on other continents.

🍒 Slot Machines of the First Half of the 20th Century

The person who became very interested in Fey’s invention was the owner of the Chicago company Mills Novelty Company. There are two versions of how he learned the secrets of the design and began producing slots:

1️⃣ First – Mills paid for the robbery of one of the bars where the “Liberty Bell” stood, disassembled the machine, found out its mechanical features, and took up production;

2️⃣ Second – he concluded an agreement with Charles Fey, who sold the rights to use the patent and earned good money.

Although the first looks more interesting and adventurous, we will settle on the second, as it is more civilized and logical. Moreover,  the first machine of the Chicago entrepreneur was a somewhat modernized version of the “Liberty Bell” .

Improvements to the one-armed bandit, named Mills Liberty Bell, consisted of the following:

• there were more symbols,
• the prize size increased,
• the size of the window for viewing images expanded

and the player could now see not only the dropped combination but also the symbols that did not quite make it on the reel. Thus, he learned that he was very close to winning, and this fact inflamed excitement in him.

In subsequent slot machines from Mills’ company, images of fruits (cherries, plums, lemons) were applied to the reels. This was done for states where gambling was prohibited by law, so as not to create the appearance that visitors play slot machines for money, but simply have fun trying to win gum or candy. In casinos, of course, prizes changed, and fruit symbols became the cause of gambling excitement.

New slots from Mills Novelty Company appeared regularly, with which the developer tried to attract the attention of people with different interests. Thus, genre and structural varieties formed in the first gambling machines.

Charles Fey’s one-armed bandit was very quickly forgotten, and by the end of the first quarter of the 20th century, other device manufacturers entered the gambling sphere. These included companies such as: Watling Scale, O.D.Jennings, Caille Bros, Rock-Ola Manufacturing, Pace Manufacturing.

 The first slot machines are masterfully and skillfully executed products operating entirely on mechanics.  They are now bought for collections, for interior decoration in vintage style, and as an investment in antiques.

Gradually, electric drives began to be added to the design of gambling machines for casinos, later microchips, processors, a screen for broadcasting images, and then online casinos appeared altogether and slots acquired a digital format. But first things first.

🔌 Electromechanical Slots

The first experiments with the use of electricity in the operation of gambling devices began to be carried out by Bally Manufacturing. The firm appeared on the market in 1932 as a creator of a pinball machine, but its founder Raymond Moloney also noticed that mechanical slots for gambling houses were in good demand. He had his own ideas, and the company soon began supplying casinos with slot machines of its own design.

Bally Manufacturing struck a truly serious blow to competitors in 1964 when it released its first electromechanical slot “Money Honey”.

This year can be marked as the beginning of the countdown for the next stage of slot machine development. Visitors to gambling houses quickly showed a liking for the innovation. The new design using enticing multi-colored lighting combined with sound design and the appearance of chances for higher winnings did their job – the machine could now pay out up to 500 coins at a time.

📈 For the next few years, Bally Manufacturing becomes the undisputed leader among slot machine manufacturers. To secure itself in the industry, the company does not stop there, rapidly expands, absorbing competitors and merging with smaller gambling firms, and by the end of the 1960s gains control over 90% of the world market share in slot production.

📺 Video Slots and RNG

In 1975, the development department of A1 Supply creates an effective software algorithm for a random number generator and, understanding that it gains some advantage in the field of equipment production for the gambling industry, successfully uses it by integrating it into its machines.

In the 1980s, International Game Technology grabs a share of the gambling market through the production and popularization of video poker, slots with new winning opportunities, and machines playing progressive jackpots.

In subsequent years, the assortment increased and the functionality of slot machines improved. IGT kept up with the start of gambling sites on the Internet, and in 2015, a merger took place with another giant of the gambling industry – Gtech, which took the name IGT.

In the 80s of the last century, other figures appeared in the gambling industry, showing themselves as worthy rivals. These included the Austrian concern Novomatic, which introduced another variety into slots – added 🎁 bonus rounds with 🆓 free spins and ❎3️⃣ multipliers.  These elements were instantly picked up by other developers and became one of the main ones laid into online slots in subsequent years. 

⭐ Slot Machine Symbols That Became Classics

Before moving on to the stage of online slot development, I would like to make a small digression and mention the history of classic slot machine symbols. These symbols passed through all generations of gambling industry development from the end of the 19th and entered the 21st century.

We are talking about:

• Bell – a top symbol from the first “Liberty Bell” slot;
• Bar – initially it was the logo of the first fruit slot machine Bell Fruit Gum. Then it transformed into BAR – white inscription on black;

also finding their place in the gaming space of slots:

• Seven – a symbol of luck;
• Fruits (cherries, plums, oranges, etc.);
• Horseshoes and stars.

💻 Slot Machines in Online Casinos

When the topic of online casinos begins, one should immediately mention the beginning of the rapid development of the company Microgaming. This developer was the first to focus on internet gaming and the creation of corresponding software. Initially, it was a digitized one-armed bandit Pharaoh Fortune.

Then the number of games began to increase, as did their prize opportunities.

♾ More Reels, Rows, Lines, Combinations

Following the one-armed bandit, online slots appeared with 5 reels and a very different number of lines for a prize combination: 20, 25, 40, 50, and then 243. The next step in the number of lines was 1024 when the 4th row was added. But developers did not stop there. In some slots, gaming capabilities allowed the number of rows to gradually increase, and along with this, the number of possible prize combinations.

🎁 More Bonuses and Prize Rounds

To increase player interest in slots, in the last century, the Joker known from card games was added to images, endowing him with special privileges – to replace a missing symbol and increase the value of a winning combination. Then developers came up with the so-called “wild” (wild symbol), which began to play the role of the Joker in slots. But real increased interest was created by those slot machines where a bonus game appeared.

 The wild symbol also became more powerful.  It gained a bunch of abilities: expanding to the entire reel, cloning to adjacent lines, sticking for several spins, multiplying total winnings, adding free spins, etc.

🔃 More Interaction

The interactive component of modern slots allows not losing players’ interest. A gambler now has access to slot machines that address him with questions: which bonus game to play or which path to follow next to increase chances for a prize.

🌌 More 🖌️ Design, 🖼️ Details, 🔊 Sound, ♨ Sensations

Not only the number of rows, reels, lines, and winning opportunities increased. Slots appeared with unusual designs and unique features of the playing field. Three-dimensional graphics helped change the gambling space of slots. 3D slots contain volumetric elements that make the digital picture almost tangible.

🔣 First Slot Machines in a Decentralized Environment

The sphere of blockchain technologies cannot be discounted, as new ideas based on implementation in a space devoid of central control are gaining strength in it.

📱 Slots on Mobile

It would seem that what could be better for a true connoisseur of gambling entertainment than to connect with an online casino, choose a category where slot machines are presented, play and enjoy rest. Moreover,  such leisure can really be spent without financial costs  because the demo mode is always available on licensed gambling sites.

The first versions of casinos for smartphones and tablets usually required downloading the liked slot. But now, if we need a mobile version of slot machines, it is enough to go to a rated casino through a browser, log in and play with maximum comfort anywhere there is an internet connection.📶

🥽 Virtual Slots

If some time ago the concepts of “virtual casino” or “virtual slots” implied a platform or machine developed for spending time online on a computer or phone, then for some time now it is directly an establishment or game in a virtual space with which the user interacts using special gadgets – 🕶️ helmet or glasses, 🧤 gloves or 🕹️ joystick.

NetEnt prepared several of its hits for virtual reality: first Gonzo’s Quest VR became available for the new generation of gambling, then Jack’s World VR and Starburst.

Microgaming should also be attributed to companies among the first to take up the creation of products for this sphere.

So, if you want to know what awaits gambling fans in the near future, pay attention to virtual casinos.  Slots in virtual reality are the next step. 

🥳 How to Play Slot Machines for Free

To assess the scale of the industry producing slot machines, it is enough to pay attention to the 4LUCK slot collection, where online slot machines are launched for free with a certain amount of demo credits on the account. Of course, you cannot win real money this way, but for studying the slot, its features, bonus games, and evaluation, it is quite enough.

👉 But the most interesting option capable of filling leisure at slot machines with excitement and adrenaline is ❗  no deposit online casino bonuses  ❗.

A huge special section is dedicated to them on the 4LUCK site, where thousands of offers from gambling operators of the world are published.

Not only is the opportunity provided to play modern slot machines online, but there is also a chance to receive a prize in real money 💶💷💴. Why not use the privileges of the modern world of the gambling industry? And the joy of winning can always be shared on the 4LUCK forum with other gambling fans. 🗨😊