The Legacy of Fruit Slot Machines
Slot machines have been around for generations, first at land-based casinos and now online. However, do you know that fruit slots have a rich and colourful history of their own? It all started over 100 years ago with a single, famous slot, and this legacy has grown into the incredible range of slot games that you can enjoy. Read on as we at Ruby Fortune delve into the history of fruit machines to find out how the iconic casino game really came to be. It might surprise you!
Charles Fey’s Liberty Bell Invention
It all started in the late 1890s in San Francisco, California. Charles Fey had created a brand new, revolutionary machine called the Liberty Bell. The Liberty Bell is now known as the grandfather of today’s modern slot machines, just with a much more basic form. The Liberty Bell offered 3 reels, a single payline, and symbols of playing cards and the iconic Liberty Bell. Interestingly, this very first slot machine didn’t have any fruit symbols – but Fey’s next slot invention did.
The Rise of the Fruit Machine Era
Fey’s invention sparked slots madness across America, and later across the rest of the world. Soon, slot machines were popping up in bars and gambling parlours everywhere, and the first forms of slots included machines like the Trade Simulator. Instead of the cash payouts we know today, these slot machines rewarded players with fruit-flavoured gum for winning combinations, and the flavour of the prize depended on the fruit symbols on the reels. Aside from being novel, awarding gum was also a way to avoid the strict gambling laws in the US at the time. These fruit machines were coined by OD Jennings at the Industry Novelty Company, who was the first to start using fruits as symbols in slot machines. As you can guess, this was the origin of the humble fruit slot!
Online Fruit Slots at Ruby Fortune
By the 1950s and 1960s, fruit machines were a common fixture at land-based casinos across the globe. They have remained popular to this day, and you can still find them at almost every brick and mortar casino you visit. With that said, online slots are a far more convenient way to play nowadays. You can still enjoy the legacy of fruit slots by playing them right here at Ruby Fortune... for cash wins, not fruit gum, of course!
