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Industry | Slot machines, vending machines and jukeboxes |
---|---|
Fate | Divestment (jukeboxes); divestment and merger (slot machines); and acquisition (vending machines) |
Successor | Mills Novelty Co. Restores & sells violanos and other Mills products |
Founded | 1891 (as M.B.M. Cigar Vending Company) |
Defunct | 1948 (jukeboxes); 1954 (vending machines); and 1980s (slot machines) |
Headquarters | Chicago |
Herbert Stephen Mills (deceased); Robert W. Brown CEO | |
Website | millsnovelty.com |
The Mills Novelty Company, Incorporated of Chicago was once a leading manufacturer of coin-operated machines, including slot machines, vending machines, and jukeboxes, in the United States. Between about 1905 and 1930, the company's products included the Mills Violano-Virtuoso and its predecessors, celebrated machines that automatically played a violin and, after about 1909, a piano. By 1944 the name of the company had changed to Mills Industries, Incorporated.[1][2] The slot machine division was then owned by Bell-O-Matic Corporation. By the late 1930s, vending machines were being installed by Mills Automatic Merchandising Corporation of New York.
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Family[edit]
The origins of the business lie with Mortimer Birdsul Mills, who was born in 1845 in Canada West (today's Ontario, Canada)[3] but who later became a citizen of the United States, resident in Chicago, Illinois. Mortimer Mills would have 13 children.[4] One son, Herbert Stephen Mills, was born in 1872 when his father was about 27.[3] In 1892, Bert E. Mills, the youngest of Mortimer Mill's children was born.[4] In about 1895, Fred L. Mills, the first of Herbert Mills' sons, was born.[5][6] Ralph J. Mills, Herbert's second son, was born in July 1898.[6] In about 1900, Herbert Mills, the third son of Herbert Stephen Mills was born. His younger brother, Hayden ('Bill') Mills, was born two years later in about 1902.[6] The Mills brothers were raised in Oak Park, Illinois, and continued to live in that area until at least the mid-1930s.[6] In 1929, Herbert Mills had died aged 57, leaving a fortune to his wife and eight children.[7] The business was continued with Fred L. Mills, Herbert's first son, taking over as president[8] while his three brothers, Ralph, Herbert, and Hayden held other top management positions.
History[edit]
Mortimer Mills was granted United States patent 450,336 on 14 April 1891 for an improvement in 'coin-actuated vending apparatus'. The improvement allowed the purchaser to select the product being sold and manipulate it so that it was carried to the point of delivery.[9] Focusing on the devices covered by the patent, Mortimer Mills founded the M.B.M. Cigar Vending Company sometime between 1891,[3] and 1895.[4] Over half a century later, the company would promote itself as having been founded in 1889, two years before the date of the patent, and by H.S. Mills rather than his father.[10]
Mortimer B. Mills's patented 1891 contribution to cigar vending
In 1897, the company launched the Mills Owl, which was the first mechanical upright cabinet slot machine. The machine's design included a circle of owls perched on a lithographed tin wheel. The machine was a great success and the company would later adopt an owl motif as its trade mark.[11]
In 1898 [1], Mortimer Mills sold a controlling interest in the company to his son, Herbert S. Mills,[4][7] and the name of the company was changed from M.B.M. Cigar Vending Company to Mills Novelty Company, Incorporated.[3] At that time, the company was located at 125-127 West Randolph Street, Chicago.
In 1904, Mills Novelty Company was an exhibitor at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Its pavilion was run by Ode D. Jennings, who would later establish a competitor to Mills.[12]
In 1906, Bert Mills left school at the age of 14 to work for Mills. He would later establish a separate company, Bert E. Mills Corporation, and, in 1946, help to develop the first vending machines to sell hot coffee.[4]
In 1907, Herbert S. Mills collaborated with Charles Fey, the inventor of the slot machine, to produce the Mills Liberty Bell.[13]
In 1926, the company had moved to a plant of 375,000 square feet (34,800 m2), comprising a factory and administrative building, at 4100 Fullerton Avenue in the northwest of Chicago.[10] Mills would distinguish itself by being one of only a few firms to manufacture both machines for gambling and vending machines.[4]
In 1928, Mills entered the market for coin-operated radios and multi-selection phonographs.[3] Between 1929 and 1948, the company manufactured and sold jukeboxes by the names of Hi-Boy, Troubadour, Dancemaster, Do-Re-Me, Swing King, Zephyr, Studio, Throne of Music, Empress, Panoram, and Constellation.[14]
By May 1935, the company was run by the four sons of Herbert Stephen Mills: Fred L. Mills was President, Ralph J. Mills was Vice President in Charge of Sales, Herbert S. Mills, Jr. was Treasurer and manager of the plant, and Hayden Mills was Secretary. The family's wealth included a private yacht named Minoco, after the family firm.[6]
In about 1935, Mills was engaged by Coca-Cola to produce a standing dry automatic cooled vendor for bottles. The result, the model 47, was the first of its kind for Cola-Cola.[1] By the late 1930s, gum vending machines were being installed by Mills Automatic Merchandising Corporation of New York. The machines made use of technology protected by United States patents assigned to Mills Novelty Company, including number 1,869,616.[15][16]
In 1940, the Mills company introduced Soundies, short 16mm musical films played in a coin-operated movie jukebox, its projection and sound mechanism made by RCA. Wartime restrictions curtailed manufacturing of the jukeboxes, but the Mills company continued to produce and distribute new films for them into 1947.
During World War II and by 26 April 1944 the name of the company had changed from Mills Novelty Company, Incorporated to Mills Industries, Incorporated. On 26 April 1944, a representative of the firm, D. W. Donahue, was appointed to a planning committee of the coin machine manufacturing industry. The committee was concerned with the transition of the coin machine factories from war production back to their former use.[2]
In July 1944 it was reported that Fred L. Mills, the then President of Mills Industries, had died at the age of 49 of a stomach aliment in St. Charles, Illinois.[5]
During World War II, Mills received authorised federal funding to use its industrial facilities to produce bomb carriers, directional antenna, hand control slip rings, and poppet valves.[17]
On 1 April 1946, Bell-O-Matic Corporation was established as the exclusive distributor worldwide of all Bells and related products manufactured by Mills, and employed all of the former personnel of the Coin Machine Department of Mills. The stated rationale for the change was that the market for the products of the Coin Machine Department and the markets for the other products of Mills were quite distinct.[10]
The last jukebox produced by the Mills Novelty Company was the Constellation (model number 951). By some mechanism, it appears that the front grille medallion from the jukebox ended up being incorporated in the 1948 Tucker Sedan, as a horn button.[18]
By January 1948, the company was financially troubled and had petitioned the federal court for time to pay its debts. In December 1948, the company sold all of its phonography inventory to H. C. Evans of Chicago.[18]
By the end of the 1940s, the Chairman of the Board of Mills was Ralph J. Mills and the President was Herbert S. Mills. Both men were Vice Presidents of Bell-O-Matic Corporation, whose officers included President V. C. Shay and Vice President in Charge of Advertising Grant F. Shay. Both companies were still located at building in Fullerton Avenue, Chicago.[10] The Bell-O-Matic Corporation would later relocate to 135 Linden Street, Reno, Nevada.
In January 1951 it was reported that the industry manufacturing slot machines in the United States, then almost entirely based in Chicago, had suffered a major blow. A bill had been signed which banned slot machines from federal property and prohibited their shipment in commerce between states. At that time slot machines were allowed only in the states of Nevada, Montana and Maryland (where they were allowed in only four counties) but were operated illegally throughout the country.[19]
In October 1954, F. L. Jacobs Company, a manufacturer of automobile parts based in Detroit, announced that it had acquired both Mills Industries, Inc. and Selmix Dispensers, Inc. of Long Island City, Queens (another manufacturer of equipment in the vending and dispensing industries). At that time the main products of Mills Industries were commercial ice cream freezers, frozen custard and milk shake machines and all types of vending machines. During 1953 and 1954, the company had added a coin-operated coffee vending machine, a three-flavor beverage bottle vendor, a citrus fruit juice vendor, and an ice cream package vendor to its product line. The intention of F. L. Jacobs Company was to operate Mills Industries as an independent subsidiary. However, component parts for the equipment were to be produced in the factories of F. L. Jacobs in Detroit, Traverse City, Michigan and Danville, Illinois.[20] By September 1954, the controller of Mills Industries was James A. Pound.[21] In November 1955, Mills Industries announced a project to consolidate, over a number of years, most of its operations in Traverse City, Michigan.[22]
In November 1955, Mills Industries, Inc. announced a coin-operated vending machine, developed jointly with H. J. Heinz Company, that would dispense a tin can of hot food (one of a selection of six soups or dinners), a can opener, and a spoon. The cans were maintained a constant temperature of 150 °F (65 °C). The machine was intended for use in factories or large offices, and the company claimed that it was a first of a kind in the United States.[23]
By the early 1960s, there were five major manufacturers of slot machines in the United States. The table below sets out their approximate comparative percentages of sales:[24]
Manufacturer | Location | Share of market |
---|---|---|
Jennings & Co., a division of Hershey Manufacturing Co. | Chicago | 40% |
Mills Bell-O-Matic Corp. | Chicago and Reno | 35% |
Ace Manufacturing Co. | Maryland | 15% |
Buckley Manufacturing Co. | Maryland | 5% |
Las Vegas Coin Machine Co. | Las Vegas | 5% |
100% |
By the early 1960s, the Bell-O-Matic Corporation was being run by Tony Mills. He sold the company to American Machine and Science, Inc. (AMSC) owned by Wallace E. Carroll (later the chairman of Katy Industries), reportedly for USD500,000. AMSC had also acquired O. D. Jennings & Company and the two companies were merged to form TJM Corporation. AMSC would later merge with CRL Industries, Inc. (subsequently renamed CRL Inc.).[25]
TJM Corporation was run by Tony Mills and his brother John Mills. The merged company failed to compete successfully with the electro/mechanical models produced by Bally and also suffered because it had not protected its intellectual property rights in Japan. The company ceased trading in the 1980s.[26]
The name 'The Mills Novelty Company' still survives today, in the form of a business that installs digital player systems in the Mills Violano Virtuoso.[27] The registered owner of United States trade marks 78625380 (the Mills Novelty Co. prize ribbon) and 78625372 (the Violano Virtuoso Self-Playing Violin and Piano laurel wreath, lyre, banner and ribbons) is Robert W. Brown of Wisconsin.[28]
Mills Violano-Virtuoso[edit]
Mills Novelty Company's automatic violin and piano player
Henry K. Sandell's patented 1905 contribution to self-playing violins
The main inventor of the Mills Violano-Virtuoso was Henry Konrad Sandell, a contemporary of Thomas Edison, who was born in about 1878. Henry Sandell arrived in the United States from Sweden at the age of about 10 in about 1888. He was granted his first United States patent on the mechanism at the age of 21, in about 1899 and put his proposals and patents before the Mills Novelty Company in about 1903.
Mills Novelty Company DeLuxe Violano Virtuoso
The DeLuxe model has two independently playing 64-note violins and a 44-note piano
On 27 March 1905 Henry Sandell filed an application for a United States patent for an electric self playing violin. The patent was granted, as number 807,871, on 19 December 1905 and assigned to Mills Novelty Company.[29] This forerunner of the Violano-Virtuoso was known as the Automatic Virtuosa. It was marketed in 1905. At the time player pianos and mechanical coin-operated devices were extremely popular.[30]
Subsequently, a piano mechanism was added to the violin mechanism, and the combination came to known as the Violano-Virtuoso.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office had a display of several significant inventions at the Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition in Seattle in 1909, including an early Violano-Virtuoso.[30] The company used this event to promote the Violano-Virtuoso as 'Designated by the U.S. Government as one of the eight greatest inventions of the decade' on all subsequent machines.
The Violano-Virtuoso was not available to the public until 1911.[30] Technology used in the instrument was patented on 4 June 1912, under United States patents 1,028,495[31] and 1,028,496.[32] Early Violan-Virtuoso's have a glass divider between the violin mechanism and the piano mechanism. Machines with two violins are known as the De Luxe Model Violano-Virtuoso or the Double Mills.
In 1914 an instrument was made especially for the Smithsonian Institution.
Production seems to have finished in 1930.[30] Henry Sandell died in 1948, aged 70. By his death he had been granted over 300 patents, many for the technology used in the Violano-Virtuoso.
The exact number of machines produced is not known. Estimates are between 4,000 and 5,000.[30] Today, some sources estimate that only about 750 of the single machines and fewer than 100 of the Double Mills still exist, while other sources estimate that several thousand machines survive. However, the Violano-Virtuoso have the highest survival rate of any type of player piano; they required little maintenance when they were first produced and that is still the case for those that survive.
A common player piano operates pneumatically. The Violano-Virtuoso was all electric and all the moving parts were set in motion by electric motors or electromagnets. A company catalogue states that they ran on 'any electric lighting current' and used 'no more than one 16-candle power light.' They were designed to operate on 110 voltsdirect current. In locations that had 110 volts alternating current (or other types of power supply) the instruments were used with a unique converter unit.
The violin had four strings, with an octave available on each string, and could reproduce 64 notes. All four strings could be played simultaneously. This allowed the possibility of four-part independent counterpoint. A vibrato could be produced.
The strings were played by small electric powered rollers, which were self-rosinating, and a chromatic set of metal 'fingers'. The violin had no finger board. A small metal 'finger', activated by an electromagnet, rose from under the string lifting it in a 'V' shaped slot thus stopping off the string. The strings were bowed by four small wheels made of discs of celluloid clamped together in a dish-shaped form. These applied just the right pressure to the strings and were driven by a variable-speed controlled motor. This and a mute allowed the volume of sound produced to be varied. The violin produced a full tone and was able to sound 1/2 note double stops at ragtime tempi. The staccato coil allowed the bows to leave the string a fraction of a second before the 'fingers'. The violin stayed in tune by a sophisticated array of tuning arms and weights. The vibrato was produced by using an electromagnet to shake the tail-piece of the violin.
The piano had 44 notes, half the number of keys found on a normal piano keyboard. It was played by regular hammers using a standard player piano action. The hammers were activated by electromagnets. The piano frame was made of iron, shaped like a shield, and symmetrically strung. The bass strings were at the centre of the frame and the treble strings radiated out to the edges from the centre. This arrangement distributed the string pressure more evenly across the frame and helped keep the piano in tune.[30]
The machine plays with the insertion of a nickel in the slot
The Violano-Virtuoso was coin-operated and its mechanism was capable of holding up to 15 coins. Some models were made for domestic use and did not have the coin mechanism.
The instrument used rolls of perforated paper. Most of the rolls had five tunes on them, the popular tunes of the day. Individual tunes could not be selected. Over time, the Mills Novelty Company produced approximately 3,121 different rolls. Each arrangement of a song was identified by a unique number. Some songs appear on more than one rolls. Attempts have been made to produce a complete 'rollography' for the Violano-Virtuoso. A list has been produced that covers more than half of the different rolls that were ever produced. Rolls 1 to about 1000 and 1800 to 2500 are well documented. Information between rolls 1000 and 1800 is very sparse and it may be that these roll numbers were never used.
The Violano-Virtuoso was a heavy object. The first page of the Violano Virtuoso manual stated that to lift the instrument from the delivery wagon would need '3 good men'.
The Violano Virtuoso was designed for public places, and can be considered to be a beautiful work of craftsmanship. The wooden cabinet in which the mechanism was housed could be oak or mahogany.
In addition to the Violano-Virtuoso, the Mills Novelty Company developed a variety of other automatic musical instruments. These included the Viol-Cello, the Viol-Xylophone, and the Mills String Quartette.[30]
References[edit]
- ^ ab'Mills Soda Machines'. Retrieved 2006-08-28.
- ^ abTerry Cumming. 'WW2 Pinball Stories - Industry People and Mfrs'. Retrieved 2006-08-28.
- ^ abcdeGert Johansen Almind. 'Jukebox History 1914-1933'. Danish Jukebox Archives. Retrieved 2006-08-28.
- ^ abcdefKerry Segrave (2002-10-01). Vending Machines. McFarland & Company. ISBN0-7864-1369-7.
- ^ ab'Milestones'. TIME magazine. 1944-07-17. Retrieved 2006-09-04.
- ^ abcde'Novelty Suit'. TIME magazine. 1935-05-13. Retrieved 2006-09-04.
- ^ ab'Mills Novelty Co'. Amusement Resources International. Retrieved 2006-08-28.
- ^F. Mills Name MI Plant Exec; Start 3 Shifts. The Billboard. 1951-07-02. pp. 77, 79. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
- ^'US Patent 450,336'. United States Patent and Trademark Office. Archived from the original on 2006-12-20. Retrieved 2006-09-02.
- ^ abcdSpinning Reels, Catalog Issue, The Story of Mills. Chicago: Bell-O-Matic Corporation. 1949. at The Pinball, Antique Slot Machine and Console Page
- ^'Owl'. International Arcade Museum. Retrieved 2006-08-28.
- ^Richard Bueschel (1992-06-15). Jennings Slot Machines 1906-1990: Illustrated Historical, Maintenance and Repair Guide to Jennings Mechanical and Electromechanical 3-Reel Bell Machines.
- ^'History of Slot Machines'. Ken and Jackie Durham.
- ^'Other Jukebox Manufacturers Serial #'s & Estimated Production'. Tom DeCillis. 2002-06-26. Retrieved 2006-08-28.
- ^'Games Manufactured by Mills Automatic Merchandising Corp'. International Arcade Museum. Retrieved 2006-09-01.
- ^'US Patent 1,869,616'. United States Patent and Trademark Office. Archived from the original on 2006-12-20. Retrieved 2006-09-01.
- ^'World War II Industrial Facilities: Authorized Federal Funding - States G-L'. Heritage Research Center, Ltd. Archived from the original on 2006-08-18. Retrieved 2006-08-27.
- ^ ab'Tucker (The Man and his Dream) and the Mills Jukebox'. Tom DeCillis. 2006-05-15. Retrieved 2006-08-27.
- ^'Goodbye, Bandits'. TIME magazine. 1951-01-15. Retrieved 2006-09-05.
- ^'F. L. Jacobs Co. Shows Profit'. Traverse City Record-Eagle. 1954-10-30.
- ^'Title not known'. Traverse City Record-Eagle. 1955-09-24.
- ^'Mills Launches Consolidation Project Here'. Traverse City Record-Eagle. 1955-11-19.
- ^'Machine By Local Firm'. Traverse City Record-Eagle. 1955-11-25.
- ^United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce (1962). Gambling Devices. U.S. Govt. Print. Off. p. 124.
- ^'CRL Inc. - Company Profile, Information & Research'. Thomson Gale. Retrieved 2006-09-03.
- ^Feddy Bailey, quoted at 'Mécanique électrifiée ??'. Flippers-jukeboxes.net. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2006-08-30.
- ^'The Mills Novelty Company'. Retrieved 2006-08-28.
- ^'United States Patent and Trademark Office'. Archived from the original on 2006-12-20. Retrieved 2006-08-28.
- ^'US Patent 807,871'. United States Patent and Trademark Office. Archived from the original on 2006-12-20. Retrieved 2006-09-11.
- ^ abcdefg'2003/8/10D Music roll in box, Violano Virtuoso, 'No. 2929 - Favorite College Football Marches''. Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. Retrieved 2006-09-10.
- ^'US Patent 1,028,495'. United States Patent and Trademark Office. Archived from the original on 2006-12-20. Retrieved 2006-09-11.
- ^'US Patent 1,028,496'. United States Patent and Trademark Office. Archived from the original on 2006-12-20. Retrieved 2006-09-11.
- Bowers, Q. David. The Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical Instruments. ISBN0-911572-08-2 Vestal, New York: The Vestal Press, 1972.
- Kitner, Michael L. and Reblitz, Arthur A. The Mills Violano-Virtuoso..the famous self-playing violin and piano..how it works, how to service and rebuild it, together with a fascinating collection of previously unpublished pictures concerning its history, its inventor, and its manufacturer.ISBN0-911572-33-3 Vestal, New York: The Vestal Press, 1984.
- Reblitz, Arthur A. The Golden Age of Automatic Musical Instruments. ISBN0-9705951-0-7 Woodsville, New Hampshire: Mechanical Music Press, 2001.
External links[edit]
- Mills Novelty Company web site Home of the Violano
- Jukebox-World Forum, Serial Numbers, classified ads and more
- Antique Amusements My collection of antique slot machines.
- Arcade-History A full list of coin-operated machines manufactured by Mills Novelty.
- [2] Graphical Timeline of Mills Novelty Co. productions (from 1897 to 1968)
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mills_Novelty_Company&oldid=922052266'
Some of the blog posts I’m most proud of here are the ones in my “ultimate guides” series. So far I’ve written ultimate guides to United States lottery games, greyhound racing, and Atlantic City casinos.
Today, though, I’m writing about something even bigger—the king of casino gambling games.
Today’s post is the ultimate guide to slots and slot machines.
My goal with this post is to share everything you might need to know to play slot machines intelligently in a casino.
Here are the topics covered in this post:
- The history of these games
- Differences in gameplay from one country to another
- How to play slots in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Reno, or anywhere else
- How the payback percentage, probability and odds work
- Which different kinds of games are available
- The most popular games
- How slot machine tournaments work
- Which of those games are best for the discerning gambler?
- Questions and answers
The History of Slot Machines
If you’ve read anything about antique slot machines or about the invention of these games, you’ve heard of Charles Fey. He was a mechanic living in San Francisco. In 1887, he invented a game with 3 spinning reels. Each of these reels had 5 symbols on them:
- Diamonds
- Hearts
- Horseshoes
- Liberty Bell
- Spades
The Liberty Bell
You’ll notice a playing card theme here, but you’ll also notice horseshoes—symbols of good luck. And the Liberty Bell is the symbol from which this prototypical slot machine game gets its name. The game originally required an attendant to pay off wins, but he continued working on and improving the machines. Eventually (by 1898), you could play a Liberty Bell slot machine and win a whopping 50 cents from the machine directly.
A Tradition of Outsmarting the Law
The games were quickly made illegal because of their gambling nature. But entrepreneurs are creative, and Fey (and other imitators) got around these restrictions by paying off winnings in candy. This is where we get the ubiquitous fruit and bar symbols seen still on these games today. The fruit symbols used to represent the flavor of the candy won. The bar symbols represented sticks of chewing gum.
In some ways, history keeps repeating itself. I live in Texas, and you’ll find slot machines called “8-liners” throughout the state. I’ve seen them in bars, in gas stations, and in “game rooms”. Since slot machines are (strictly speaking) illegal in Texas, these games don’t pay off in cash.
Instead, you get points which you can use toward prizes. I spent some time in a game room in a small town in Texas where you could literally cash in these points for canned goods like corn. They also had a cheap set of gardening tools available.
I’ve also played 8-liners in bars where if you won you had to visit the owner of the bar on Friday to pick up “an envelope”. This envelope had your cash winnings in it. But God forbid you ask for an envelope if the owner didn’t know who you were.
These are just examples from my personal experience of clever entrepreneurs skirting anti-gambling laws to continue to offer slot machine games to their customers. In that respect, things have changed little since the 1890s.
In fact, these gambling machines changed very little for decades, although they did become fixtures in the casinos. For years, these games were considered a distraction for the wives of the “real” gamblers—the men who were playing blackjack, craps, and poker. They were found in the places in the casino where the management thought they’d be more likely to attract the attention of these women.
Bally Technologies, Money Honey, and New Electro-Mechanical Games
Things started to change in the industry in the 1960s with the introduction of the first electro-mechanical slot machines. Bally Technologies invented a game called Money Honey, which incorporated a combination of electronic components. These gizmos enabled the designers to accept multi-coin bets. These games also ran faster.
Faster games with higher payouts increased the popularity of such machines, but they didn’t take over the casino floors immediately. This has been a gradual process that hasn’t stopped. But the invention of electro-mechanical machines like Money Honey was the first step in that direction.
Video Slots Like Fortune Coin and Megabucks Change Everything
The industry took off with the invention of video slots in 1979. The importance of the developments made in the 1980s can’t be overstated. The first of these was called Fortune Coin, and it was soon acquired by IGT, the largest manufacturer of casino games in the world. Believe it or not, it was initially distrusted by gamblers. They assumed that a game powered by computer animation would inevitably be rigged and impossible to win.
By 1986, these computerized games made it possible to link multiple games to the same ever-increasing jackpot. These games are now called progressive slots, and the first—and still most famous—example of these games is called MegaBucks. The jackpot for this network of games regularly surpasses $10 million.
These larger jackpots became available because of the lack of restrictions on number of symbols on each reel. With a mechanical slot machine, you’re limited to probably 20 symbols per reel max. And since such a game is mechanical, it’s hard to adjust the probability of a symbol coming up. Each stop had an equal chance of happening.
But with a computerized game, you can program one symbol to come up once every 20 spins and another to come up once every 40 spins. The games now use PARs sheets to delineate those probabilities. The designers and the casinos know what the odds are on these games. The public doesn’t have access to this information, though.
Over the last 30-40 years, slot machines have become the most popular game in the casino. Just a decade ago, you’d often see the following factoid on the Internet:
65%-70% of a casino’s revenue comes from the gambling machines.
But that’s changed. I read a book recently which claimed that in most casinos, slots make up 80% or more of that casino’s revenue.
This is a seismic shift in gambling practices in a casino.
The Internet Changes Everything Again
In the 1990s, the Internet became a thing. It didn’t take long for gambling entrepreneurs to realize that you could use similar computer technology to offer the same kinds of games over the Internet. The Web also allowed these operators to offer their games to players in areas where gambling was illegal. (Remember—that’s a tradition in the industry.)
The thinking is that an offshore casino is regulated by the laws where it’s located. If gambling on the Web is legal in Costa Rica, for example, it’s legal for someone in Texas to gamble online there. Their contention is that the wagering is taking place where the server in Costa Rica is.
The federal government in the United States takes a less enlightened stance on this idea. They’ve made it clear that offshore companies offering gambling games to United States players are breaking the law. They’re less close-minded about whether the players are breaking the laws.
The Future
As Criswell points out in the great Ed Wood movie Plan 9 from Outer Space, we’re all interested in the future, because that’s where we’re going to spend the rest of our lives. But who knows what the future holds for slot machine gambling?
It’s clear to me that we’ll continue to see innovations which make these games even more compelling and addictive. The legal climate in the United States seems to be trending toward legalization. Just in my own lifetime, I’ve seen gambling become something that people had to fly to Nevada or to New Jersey to do. Now I can just drive an hour north to the Winstar Casino to spin the reels and try my luck.
Slot machines are going to continue to become more interactive and profitable for the casinos. Eventually, I’m going to predict that they’ll become too interactive and addictive. At that point, the government might start restricting gambling on a legal basis again. The pendulum seems to swing back and forth with such things, at least in the USA.
Most of the research for this section was done using Wikipedia.
How to Play Slot Machines at Casinos in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Reno, or Anywhere Else
Slot machines are the easiest games in the casino to play.
You insert money, push a button or pull a lever, watch the spinning reels, listen to the sounds, and collect your winnings (if any).
In fact, slots are so simple to play that it almost seems silly to write a guide on the subject.
But like any other gambling activity, playing slots has subtleties that aren’t apparent.
In practical terms, here’s what you need to know about playing these games.
When you’re looking at one of these games, you’ll notice that it looks a lot like a traditional coin-operated video game in an arcade. Only most slot machines have a lever on the side.
And in fact, most modern slots have more in common with video games than anything else. 50 years ago slot machines were mechanical and powered by springs and gears, but modern slots are powered by computer programs and video screens.
When you’re facing the machine, you’ll see the name of the game and its logo at the top. Underneath that are the spinning reels that make up the game. On many modern games, these spinning reels are animated.
If it’s an old-school machine with actual physical spinning reels, a pay table will be printed on the glass above or to the side of the spinning reels. This pay table shows the possible winning combinations of symbols and how much they pay if you hit them.
On newer machines with animation, you can access the pay table via the controls on the screen. (The controls and the pay table are both part of the animation, usually, although some machines have physical controls on the console.)
Most slot machine games still have a lever on the side, but it’s just for show. When slot machines were purely mechanical affairs, you’d use the lever to start the reels spinning. Now you have the option of pushing a button on the console to start the reels spinning. There’s no advantage to using either option, although you’ll play slower if you use the lever instead of the button.
Beneath the spinning reels is where you put your money into the machine. Some modern machines only have bill changers, but some still also accept change in a coin slot. When you input your money, the machine updates electronically and displays how many credits you have.
Beneath where you input the money is a metal tray called a hopper. In the old days, this is where your winnings would spill out. They were paid in coins, and casinos used to have big plastic buckets located throughout to use to put your coins in.
Most modern slot machines use a ticket in/ticket out system now. You cash these tickets in at the cage in the cashier area, just like you would cash in clay casino chips. The bill changer on modern slots will also read your tickets—you can insert them just like cash.
The ticket in/ticket out system has a lot of advantages for the casinos, the biggest being breakage. That’s just a fancy word to describe tickets that don’t get claimed. Many gamblers don’t want to waste time standing in line at the cage to cash in a ticket that might only be worth a couple bucks.
The casino gets to keep this money if the players don’t claim it.
And a couple of bucks per person matters a lot when you’re dealing with thousands of people per day.
The actual mechanics of playing are simple, though. You insert your money, choose how much you want to wager per spin, and wait to see what your results are. When you’re ready to cash out, you push the button to cash out and take your ticket.
Some games do pay more if you play max coins, but others don’t. Read the pay table to find out beforehand. If the game has higher jackpots for playing max coins, you’ll probably want to do so. If you can’t afford to, you should move to a lower denomination machine.
These games are played in the same way regardless of where the casino is. Slots in Las Vegas play just like the games in Atlantic City. The games in Reno are the same, too. The insides might work differently from one locale to another, but that difference is more-or-less opaque to the player. I’ll write more about the different kinds of innards slots have in the next section.
I referred frequently to this article when I researched this section.
World Slot Machines
These games aren’t just played in the United States. They’re popular in other countries, too. In fact, in some countries (ahem, Australia), they’re practically a national pastime.
But most countries call them by another name.
In England, they’re called “fruit machines”.
In Australia, they’re called “pokies” (short for “poker machines”).
In Norway, they’re called “kronespill”.
In Scotland, they’re called “puggys”.
In Canada (and often in the U.S.) they’re called “slots”.
They all feature spinning reels. That is, in fact, the defining aspect of such a game.
But they also feature different gameplay options and variations depending on where you live.
Fruit machines, for example, differ slightly from regular slot machines. In fact, they resemble the 8-liners found in bars in Texas. They resemble video poker machines, in a sense. That’s because they almost always give you the option to hold some symbols and take another spin on some of the reels. This doesn’t imply that skill helps in any way. The results are still randomly controlled by a random number generator, and no amount of so-called strategy will improve your odds.
Pokies, on the other hand, usually feature a massive number of pay-lines and lots of bonus features like scatters, wild symbols, and bonus games. The newest innovation in pokies are the games with 243 ways or 512 ways to win. These basically eliminate the concept of pay-lines entirely. Any winning combination from left to right results in a win.
I should point out to that one of the biggest and most popular gambling destinations in the world now is Macau. But slot machines aren’t a big draw there. In fact, baccarat occupies the position in the casinos there that slots hold here in the U.S. Over 80% of a Macau’s casino revenue is generated from baccarat, not slots. That’s a significant cultural difference, to be sure.
I consulted this page when researching this section of the post.
Slot Machine Games and Variations
The original slot machines developed at the turn of the last century were mechanical devices with actual metal reels inside them. When you pulled the lever, the springs set those reels to spinning. Symbols were printed on the front of the reels, and when they lined up, you got paid off.
For example, you might put a penny into such a machine, pull the lever, and see three cherries line up across the center of the reels. That line across the center of the reels is called a pay line.
Modern slot machines often have multiple lines, but you pay to activate each line. Old-school games had only three reels and one payline.
These kinds of games still exist, but they’re no longer powered by springs and reel stops. Their results are determined by a computer program called a random number generator. These are called classic slots. They might seem boring compared to some of the newer, flashier, and glitzier games.
But they usually offer the best odds in the casino (at least as far as slot machines go).
Newer slot machines also often feature five reels instead of three. To accomplish all these extra reels and pay lines, the slot machine manufacturers use animation and computer programs. Five reel slots and multi-line slots are usually video slots. That just refers to what the game looks like.
These games often include all kinds of bonus features and games. Some of these bonus games even have skill elements. Others are completely random.
A good example of a game with a bonus feature is Wheel of Fortune slots. If you’ve spent any time in an American casino, you’ve seen and heard this game. It’s based on the popular game show. If you get certain combinations of symbols on the screen, you get to spin the wheel.
All free games no downloading. On most Wheel of Fortune games, the wheel is smaller and is located on top of the machine. I’ve seen versions that are huge and allow multiple people to sit around the wheel itself. Most players love getting to spin the wheel.
And of course, you get a bonus payout based on where the wheel lands.
These games often also include wild symbols. If you play poker, you’re probably familiar with the concept of a wild card. It’s just a card that can substitute for a card that would make a winning hand.
A wild symbol on a slot machine game works in the same way. It substitutes for a reel symbol that you would need to have to achieve a winning combination.
Modern slots also often include scatter symbols. These are symbols which don’t need to be on any specific pay line to achieve a winning combination. No matter where they appear on the screen, if the right number and type of scatter symbols show up, you get paid off.
Slot machines differ from most other gambling games. You can easily list the number of poker variations or blackjack variations on a single page. But slots come in a staggering array. That’s because dozens of manufacturers create new games constantly.
In fact, you can find several ways to categorize these games. Below are some of these ways:
Legally, slot machines can be categorized by how their algorithms work. These categorizations are Class II and Class III. They matter because they affect which kinds of games the casino can legally offer. In states which allow tribal casinos, the restriction is often that they can only offer Class II slot machines. These games are based on a bingo algorithm. All the games are networked together with a central computer which is constantly running bingo games. The payouts are based on the bingo results, and the spinning reels are just for show. Class III slot machines, on the other hand, have individual random number generators inside each machine.
Progressive slot machines have jackpots that grow constantly while you play. You’ll see a jackpot ticker at the top of such a machine which tells you what the top jackpot is. Flat top slot machines, on the other hand, have a fixed top jackpot.
Traditional slot machines have 3 reels and usually 1-3 pay-lines. These games look mechanical, even though the results are still powered by a computer program called a random number generator. Video slot machines usually have 5 reels (or more) and at least 5 pay-lines. They cost more to play because you pay to activate each pay-line. Roulette pour panier lave vaisselle arthur martin. But you have more opportunities to get at least small wins.
Video slot machines are usually the games with all the bonus features like bonus games, scatter symbols, and wild symbols. All these bells and whistles result in lower payout percentages for the player, though. You have a choice. Play the fancier, more fun game. Or play the more boring game which provides you a better chance to win.
I leave it to you to decide which of those options is better for you.
I used several pages to research this section, including this one and this one. You’ll also find a page with a more comprehensive treatment of this subject right here on this site.
The Most Popular Slots Games
I read a book about gambling once that compared the popularity of slot machines with a quote from the Beatles. At one point, they claimed to be more popular than Jesus.
And if slots are that popular, specific games occupy high positions of popularity within the category. This section of the post looks at the most popular games and how they got there.
Wheel of Fortune slots are the undisputed kings of the gambling machine sections of casinos in the United States. I read a book about slots recently that claimed that IGT, the game’s manufacturer, were so eager to duplicate this game’s success that they surveyed the players to find out why it was so popular.
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They got a variety of answer, of course. But one answer was common.
Most of the people who loved Wheel of Fortune slots said that the game reminded them of watching the game show on TV with their grandmother when they were young.
How can you beat that as a formula for success?
In fact, Wheel of Fortune isn’t just a single slot machine game anymore. It’s a brand. Lots of different games use the branding, and each of them has different gameplay features. They all have two things in common, though:
- The sights and sounds related to the game show.
- The spinning wheel bonus game.
Wheel of Fortune isn’t the only game to borrow elements from a popular game show. You’ll find plenty of them scattered throughout the casinos: The Price Is Right, Jeopardy, The $20,000 Pyramid, Deal or No Deal, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire have all spawned slot machine games.
The Simpsons slots are like that, too. It’s more about branding than specific gameplay features. Multiple slot machine games share the branding, sound effects, characters, and iconography. The newest version is a big flashy monstrosity of a game. The TV show has been on the air for over 27 years now.
Notice a trend yet? Tapping into existing intellectual properties and brands is a smart move for game manufacturers and casinos. People love familiarity. You’ll find that most of the most popular gaming machines tap into this tendency.
And The Simpsons isn’t the only cartoon to spawn its own gambling game. The Pink Panther has been popular for years. South Park slots are also hugely popular. At one time, using a cartoon as the basis for one of these games was controversial. The regulators felt like this was a means of enticing under-age gamblers. But most modern cartoons aren’t even aimed at children.
Elvis slots are a big deal, too. Like the other games I’ve listed, several different machines share this branding. You can find slot machine games featuring skinny Elvis, fat Elvis, and Elvis singing different songs. (“Burning Love” is a favorite.)
He’s probably the most iconic singer to have a popular slot machine game, but other singers are in on the action, too. Dolly Parton slots are popular. Cher has her own slot machine, too. You can even find slots based on Hee-Haw, a country western music themed variety show that was on the air for decades.
In short, anything that summons nostalgia among the right demographic is a potential theme for a popular gambling machine. The more popular the brand and intellectual property, the more popular the game.
Slot Machine Tournaments and How They Work
A slot machine tournament is an opportunity for you to compete against other gamblers. It’s also an opportunity to get a good little bit of action without spending a lot of money.
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Here’s how most slot machine tournaments work:
You pay an entry fee. For that, you get a certain number of credits on a slot machine. The other players do likewise.
When the tournament starts, the casino sets a timer, and you get to make as many spins as possible before one of the following happens:
- You run out of credits.
- The timer runs out.
When the timer runs out, the player with the most credits is the winner.
Usually this gives you an opportunity to get a large payout for a low buy-in. Many of these tournaments are offered as freerolls by the casino to attract new customers.
I researched some of the information for this section using this page.
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Probability and Slot Machines – How the Payback Percentage Works
All casino games have this in common—they pay off less than the odds of winning. For example, if you place a bet that pays off at 10 to 1, you can bet that the odds of winning are worse than 10 to 1. The casinos are in business to make a profit. This mathematical edge is how they do it.
Here’s a specific example of how that might work with a simple slot machine game:
You’re playing a game with 3 reels and a single payline. Each reel has 8 symbols on it. The probability of getting a specific symbol on a specific reel is 1/8. The probability of getting that symbol on all 3 reels is 1/8 X 1/8 X 1/8, or 1/512. This means that the odds of winning are 511 to 1. If that bet pays off at 500 to 1, the casino expects to win money in the long run.
Let’s assume you’re playing for $100 per spin. You lose $51,100 on your losing spins. But you win $50,000 on your winning spin. Your loss is $1100 on the 512 spins, which means you lose an average of $2.14 per spin.
This means the casino has an edge of 2.14% on this bet, and the payback percentage (the amount they expect to pay back on every bet) is 97.86%.
Of course, modern slot machines are more complicated than this. They usually have more than 8 symbols on each reel. They might have 15 or even 20 symbols.
And since they’re not mechanical but computerized, they can weigh the probabilities of some symbols coming up differently than others. Some symbols might come up an average of once every 40 spins, while others might come up an average of once every 10 spins.
These numbers are all determined by the designer and the PARs sheet for the game. But the casino and the manufacturer know the exact expected payback percentage for every slot machine on the floor.
In fact, in almost every case, the gamblers don’t have the information needed to calculate what the payback percentage is for a specific game.
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This makes the slot machine the only game in the casino where it’s impossible for a player to know what kind of house edge he’s facing.
I used some information presented on Gamblers Bookcase when researching this section.
Which Slots Games Are Best for the Smart Player
The best slots games for the smart players are no slots games at all. These games always have a house edge that can’t be overcome. If you play any of these games long enough, you’ll lose all your money.
So some games can be considered less worse than others, though. The lower the house edge, the better. At the same time, if a game has a low payback percentage but isn’t fun, it’s probably not worth playing, either.
What’s a smart slot machine player to do?
Here are some tips about which games, in general, offer the best odds. I also offer some personal observations about how useful each tip is.
- Flat top games are better than progressive games. Unless you’re determined to win a huge life-changing jackpot, you’re better off going with the games which have a fixed top prize. (These are called flat top slot machines.) Progressive jackpots, on the other hand, offer worse odds overall, because a tiny percentage of each of your bets goes toward increasing the size of that jackpot.
- The games with the lowest jackpots probably offer better odds. This probably seems counter-intuitive. After all, if you have two slots games that cost $1 per spin to play, wouldn’t the game with the higher jackpot offer the better odds? The short answer is no. You take two factors into account when determine a gambling game’s odds: 1) the payoff and 2) the odds of winning. On a slot machine, the larger the top prize, the less likely you are to win it.
- Higher denomination games usually offer better odds than lower denomination games. The reason for this is simple. A game that you play for a nickel can be more profitable for a casino than a penny game with an even higher payback percentage. Let’s say the penny game has a payback percentage of 90%. That means the casino wins 10% (on average) of the money put through the game. At 600 spins per hour at a penny a spin, that’s $6.00 per hour in action, and 60 cents per hour in expected profit. Let’s say the nickel game has a payback percentage of 95%. That means the casino wins an average of 5% of 600 spins at 5 cents each. That’s $1.50 per hour. The nickel game offers you MUCH better odds of winning, but the casino still makes more profit per hour. The casino WANTS you to play the higher denomination machines.
- Max coin doesn’t matter so much. On some gambling machines, it makes a difference, but this isn’t carved in stone. In fact, it’s just as common that it doesn’t matter at all. This is one of the major differences between most video poker games and most slot machines. You should ALWAYS bet max coin at video poker because of the increased payout for the top jackpot. This is not true of all slots games. Check the pay table on the game you’re looking at to know for sure.
You can also find plenty of bad advice about how to choose the best slots games. Below are some examples of advice that isn’t accurate:
- If anyone tells you WHERE the highest-paying games are, just smile knowingly and ignore them. 22 years ago, Frank Scoblete published a book called Break the One-Armed Bandits. The advice he gives in that tome is to look for games on the ends of the aisles. The theory is that the casinos want to attract players to the games, so that’s where they put the loosest machines. That’s not how it works, though—at least, not in the real world. Most casinos with identical games have games with identical payback percentages. Those that don’t place their games randomly throughout the floor of the gambling machine area.
- There’s nothing you can do to improve your chances of winning. This is true in a sense, because if you play long enough, you’ll almost certainly lose. But you can choose games which offer better odds in the short term than others. For example, avoiding progressive slots in favor of flat top slots improves your chances of winning. Choosing traditional 3-reel slots with a single payline improves your chances of winning compared to choosing 5-reel slots with a dozen or more paylines.
- Games get hot or cold. The idea behind this is that a game is either due to pay out or that it’s cold and on a cycle of losing spins. This is an example of the gambler’s fallacy in action. The idea is that you can take advantage of a winning streak or a losing streak, but the reality is that every spin of the reels is an independent event. The results of previous spins have nothing to do with the result of your next spin. Yes, you will see winning and losing streaks. But you’ll only see them in retrospect. And there’s no way to predict when they’ll begin or end. There’s no way to take advantage of what’s already happened.
A lot of the details about improving your chances of winning at slots was found at Michael Bluejay’s excellent page on the subject.
Slots Questions, Answered
Per my rigorously scientific (not) research on Google and Bing, these are some of the most commonly asked questions about slots and slot machines. Lots of people seem to want to know the answers to these questions. I’ve answered them succinctly and included links to other resources that answer them in more detail.
Which slot machine strategies are winning strategies?
Okay, so this one might not be a word-for-word question many people ask, but this is the one that gets to the point most people care about. How can you win at slot machines? Is there a smart way to play?
The short answer is that none of the slot machine strategies you’ll read about online are winning strategies. Slot machines—and every other casino game, for that matter—have an unassailable house edge. Mathematically speaking, nothing you do can improve your odds of winning.
The best you can do is try to choose games with a low house edge. You’ll at least get more entertainment for your money.
But if you play long enough, no matter what strategies you use, you’ll eventually lose all your money.
You can find comprehensive information about slot machine strategy in this page on this site.
Can you play slot machines for free?
Yes, you can play slot machines for free, but not at traditional brick-and-mortar casinos. Free slot machine games are available at most online casinos. These companies want you to try free versions of their games, hoping that you’ll upgrade to playing for real money.
You can also buy software and download apps that have free slot machine games.
I’ve never seen the point in playing such a game. After all, aren’t you just pushing a button and watching a meaningless animation?
The only thing that gives a slot machine game any meaning at all is the money that you have on the line, isn’t it?
The only reason I can see for playing a free game is to try out the casino software to see if you think you’ll want to play the real money games there.
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You can find detailed reviews of casinos offering free slot machines here on this site.
Are slot machines addictive?
Some people are from a school of thought that says you can’t be addicted to slot machines because you’re not ingesting anything into your body. Slots aren’t like drugs or alcohol. How could you become addicted to them?
Those people are wrong.
Addiction is more complicated than that. Gambling game designers do their best to make these games addictive.
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If you know anything about behavioral psychology or how the brain reacts to video games and gambling games, it doesn’t take you long to realize that slot machines are addictive.
Does this mean you’ll become a mindless slave to these games if you play them?
Not necessarily.
Addiction is more complicated than that, too.
The best thing you can do is look for warning signs that your gambling has gotten out of control. The most important warning sign is a lack of joy in the activity.
If you’re compelled to play these games but don’t enjoy them, you might have an addiction.
Get help.
Read a detailed guide to gambling addiction in general here on this site.
Can you buy and/or own your own slot machine?
The answer to this depends on where you live. In some states, slot machine ownership is completely illegal. In others, you’re allowed to own such games if they’re old enough to qualify as antiques. How old such games must be varies based on state law. But in all states, you must have a gambling license to own such a game and offer real money play to customer on it.
You can find a more detailed question and answer section elsewhere on this site.
Do casinos change the odds of winning on a machine that’s gotten hot or cold?
The random number generators on a slot machine are programmed to pay off at a certain percentage over the life of the game. But in the short run, anything can happen. Casinos understand this. They don’t need to re-program these games. They just let them run until the long-term expectation kicks in.
Conclusion
I hope you found this definitive guide to slots and slot machine helpful.
Would you do me a favor now?
Leave a comment below and let me know what you think of this guide to slot machines.
What did I leave out that I should have included?
What questions do you have that I didn’t cover?
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