The Age of the Video Slot
It was 1975 and the slot machine had developed and grown since the early 1800s. From the early heavy-duty mechanical machines like the Liberty Bell, to the lighter and more secure electronic versions, we now had the age of the video slot machine.
The first company to develop video technology was the Fortune Coin Company but they stumbled across a very strange problem; the paying public didn’t trust them! The electronic versions still showed each reel spinning in action and the new video machines didn’t. This prompted the paying public to assume that the design companies had created a machine that could deceive them and take their money.
In 1978, International Game Technology (IGT) purchased the Fortune Coin Company and improvements were made to the early video slot machines. Slowly and surely the paying public started to trust this new type of machine and the popularity, particularly on the strip of Las Vegas, started to grow.
In 1982, IGT had a brainwave when it created the first progressive video slot machine. They gave it the title Megabucks and it was a three-dollar machine that was connected to a series of other machines held in the casino. The progressive technology allowed IGT to create jackpots that paid out life changing sums of money. The people loved them and slowly but surely they became one of the most played games in the casinos around the world.
The video slot machine was here to stay!
This article was written by Alex, who's a huge fan of online slots – she still hasn't won the jackpot though, so that's her aim for 2012!
Silversands Casino recently launched quite a few new video slots - Basketbull, Monster Mayhem, Glitz and Glamour and Mice Diceto mention just a few.