Slot Machines – How to Play?

 

The first slot machine called “Liberty Bell” was invented by Charles Fay. He created this at his workshop in San Francisco in 1887. This slot machine was bit smaller than the present one. This slot machine, Liberty Bell had 3 reels and 20 symbols and its operation was the same as today’s slot machines. In relatively short period of time, Fay’s creation became popular and successful.

 

A slot machine “Operator Bell” similar to “Liberty Bell” in design was created in 1907, by Herbert Mills. He was a Chicago manufacturer. This slot machine had experienced a greater success. In 1910 slot machines became very common throughout USA.

What are slot machines?

 

A slot machine is a mechanical device which has varying number of circular reels of different dimensions. These reels have various symbols on it either painted on or they are attached to it. There can be any symbol but the most common designs are cherries, bars or the jackpot symbol number 7. The symbols on the machine make no difference to how the machine will play or what and how much it will pay out.

How to play the game?

 

The game begins when the player inserts a number of coins or gaming tokens into a coin slot which is in the front of the slot machine. Then the player pulls the handle which is fixed to the right side of the machine that sets the reels spinning. The reels come to a halt in order from left to right on the screen. The main objective is to line up matching symbols on the pay line. The schedule of winning combinations on the front or just above the machine, indicating the hierarchy of winning combinations and the amount that each one pays whenever it appears on the active pay line.

 

Some modern machines have a button instead of the handle. This button is marked as “spin” which is pressed by the players to start the reels turning. Some modern machines have the button marked as “credit”. If the player presses this button before inserting coins then, instead of paying winners off in coins, the machine will automatically credit winnings to a credit meter. The credited winnings appear numerically on the machine’s credit meter display, and, as an option, the player then has a choice of playing these credits, or cashing them out. If the player wants to play the credits, the player can press the button which is marked as “play one credit”. The each time this button is pressed the machine will reduce one credit from the credit meter and schedule one matching coin as “coin in”. The player can press this “play one credit” button up to the machines maximum coin limit.

 

For example, if the machine on which the player is playing takes 5 coins as maximum, then player can press this “play one coin” button 5 times. These coins are reduced from the player’s credit meter and then credited to player’s next pull. The machine will usually say “coin accepted” on the screen, when this is done or the display will light up in some cases. The result is the same as if the player had put five coins in the slot instead of using the credits he had collected. Most of the modern machines also have one more button called “play maximum coins”, sometime also identified as “play five coins” if that machine’s maximum is five coins, or “play four coins” if that machine’s maximum is four, and so on. By pressing this button, the player will automatically play the maximum coins which that machine takes. The player may also cash out these credits by pressing a button marked “collect”. By pressing this button, the machine will pay out in coins, or gaming tokens, all the credits indicated on the credit meter. These coins then fall to the plate mounted at the bottom of the machine.

 

The rules of slot machines simply rotate around the theory of any wheel spinning and stopping at a matching sequence of figures to hit a jackpot. Now almost all the slot machines are based on a computer chip that is designed to generate numbers always. And these numbers displays the output on the display screen of the slot machines.