The history of slots games starts way back in 1891 when they were first invented by Pitt and Sittman in Brooklyn. Because of their previous form, having a large lever held at the side of the machine, they are also known as ‘one armed bandits’.

At first they were intended only as another way to play poker, being a machine with five drums comprising of 50 playing cards with a lever used to spin the cards around. The player pulled the lever hoping that when the slot machine stopped rotating a good poker hand would be displayed. The payouts offered by the casino slot machines of 1891 were small, often being offered a free drink or a cigar but even so, those one-armed bandits generated quite a stir among people and they became more and more popular.

In 1895, Charles Fey invented an even simpler mechanism for the casino slot machines. He created a slot machine that had an automatic payout, with three revolving drums. He replaced the poker theme idea displaying on his reels five symbols of a Liberty bell, horseshoe, spades, hearts and diamonds. The casino slots game was giving a prize after a row of three bells was hit.

With time casino slots games evolved tremendously displaying hundreds of themes and today they know rules and restrictions to be played. For example, in the US, casino slot machine games can be played only in a casino and some states even restrict which type of slots can be played.