History of the Poker Machines

Poker machines, otherwise known as slot machines, have been with the gambling industry since the late 19th century. Charles Fey, an auto mechanic from the US, came up with the first poker machine in 1887 but some surmised that he probably came up with the idea later in 1895. The earlier slot machine had too many reels and symbols, which proved to be difficult for punters to win, so Fey devised a newer slot machine with only three reels and five symbols for each reel. This device improved the punter’s winning percentage and so from then on Fey’s poker machines became the first official slot machine games.

Australia found out about the poker machines in the 1950s. It was in 1953 when an Australian company called Aristocrat realized the potential of slot machines in widening their customer base. The game was easy to play and also addicting, and even though winning against the game is next to impossible players love placing their bets on it due to its exciting gameplay and tempting jackpots. So Aristocrat decided to introduce poker machines or “pokies” to Australian punters. But rather than purchase a truckload of slot machine from the US or Europe, the Australian company decided to make their own pokies. Joe Heywood was the one who designed the first Australian poker machine. It resembled the US version of a pokies machine, wherein it also had three reels and five symbols for each reel. The first machine Heywood built was called “The Clubman” and Aristocrat introduced it to the public. After a few years, the company had another built and called it “The Clubmaster”, which was an even greater hit with punters than the first one. It became such a popular game for punters in Australia that the government of New South Wales decided to legalize the use of this machine in all registered clubs and casinos at the time. After legalizing slot machines the number of punters who played with it skyrocketed.

In the following years of the pokie’s inception into the gambling industry, nothing much happened to it. Almost all of the machines that were being played at the time had the same features and had the same mechanism. But when the mid 1990s came, poker machines and gambling as a whole took the next step in their evolution. When online gambling emerged in the mid 1990s, poker machines also went virtual and evolved into online poker machines or online pokies. Punters who had to travel great distances just to visit the nearest casinos and play with poker machines now only had to download programs into their computers. Online pokies became an instant hit and it changed how people gambled with slot machines forever.

The mechanism of poker machines is pretty simple, even with the online pokies. All a player has to do is insert his money into the slot provided for the cash or coins and pull on the lever at the side to spin the reels. If a player is using a video poker machine then he could push on the button at the front of the device to spin the reels. When the reels stop spinning and the symbols do not match then the player loses a bet. But when the reels stop spinning and the symbols do match then the player wins the jackpot or whatever prize that certain slot machine is offering. It’s that simple and yet winning against this game is quite difficult. With the online pokies the mechanics of the game is exactly the same, the difference is that a player does not have a tangible slot machine to play with.

Author’s Bio:

Graves Horton is a freelance writer and frequent poker machines player. He currently resides in New South Wales often visiting online casinos that offers online pokies to write reviews about them or simply enjoy letting them take away his hard-earned money.