Where Did Slot Machines Get Their Symbols From?
$6,000 Welcome Bonus
Essex has an abundance of casinos, with four serving its distinct areas. If you have visited any, you will have noticed the iconic slot machines lined up with their bright colours and chiming bells as you enter. Yet these symbols were not invented on the spot but have earned a well-deserved spot in popular culture.
Working their way up from a carnival game to a staple of casino culture, they have also gone from large mechanical machines to sleek online games. But where did they get their unique icons? Below, we discuss how and where slot machines got their unique icons.
Modern Machines
Modern slot games, particularly electronic ones, can have numerous symbols within them. Many of them may be from licensed properties, or they may have been changed to suit the theme of the game. For example, in these casino online slots, some games such as Rocky have symbols that feature icons from the boxing movie franchise, whereas, others such as Mayan Mystery have symbols that use indigenous South American style artwork, to show the theme of the game.
Yet many of these, aside from some unique features, serve the same purpose as the classic symbols put in place years ago. So how did the bar symbols, bells and cherries become associated with the machine?
Classic Symbols
The earliest slot machine symbols used suits from cards. Poker and blackjack had been about long before the invention of the slot machine. Developed by Sittman and Pitt, what we could see as an actual slot machine today was a mechanical poker device, which pushed up to 50 playing cards on 5 rotating drums. While cards are no longer used in slots, many of the symbols still are.
The next step in the evolution of the slot machine came from Charles Augustus Fey. He created a machine that would give automatic payouts to winners. To achieve this a drastic overhaul was needed regarding how complex the game was. He reduced the reels to three and replaced the cards with five symbols. Two of these were the ones we know today: The Liberty Bell and the Horseshoe. Without a patent in place, it was copied, spreading the images far and wide.
The Fruit Machine
Prizes were changed in 1902 to be in the form of chewing gum and candy, and the symbols changed to match.
Out went card symbols and horseshoes, and in came cherries, lemons, and the famous bar symbol. Very often, sweets were paid out in a flavour corresponding to the matching symbol. This machine was known as the Operator Bell, but you may know it as ‘The Fruity’ or ‘Fruit Machine’.
As time progressed, these classic symbols from two eras began to merge with modern ones. Diamonds and four-leaf clovers came into play, along with game-specific graphics. Over time, the purpose of most symbols has remained the same, which is to provide a game with the element of chance involved.
