1. Slots Gambling has always been part and parcel of human social activity. After all, in essence, life comes to us as a series of probabilities, and every moment of our lives is a gamble. So why not make it fun? There is much anthropological evidence suggesting that recreational gambling was being enjoyed in the thousand-year old ancient civilizations of the Mesopotamians, Greeks, Chinese and others. At the turn of the 20th century, however, a simple, yet enterprising mechanic named Charles Fey from San Francisco, California invented a machine that would change the face of gambling forever: the slot machine. The first slot machine, called the Liberty Bell, consisted of three spinning reels with symbols of horseshoes, diamonds, spades, hearts, and, of course a Liberty Bell. It took three matching symbols in a row to win, with the Liberty Bell symbol giving the most payout. For the first time, no direct social interaction whatsoever was required to gamble. A person simply went to a machine, put in some money, and walked away with winnings, or more often, with nothing gained. The slot machine heralded what can be called the mechanical age of gambling. In its initial heyday, gambling machines started popping up all across America but in 1909 anti-gambling laws declared that slot machines were not permitted to dispense cash. Slot machine owners adapted by giving free items like candy or gum instead. This is most likely the reason for fruit symbols being popular on so many slot machines to this day; it is speculated that the original slot machines’ card-derived symbols were replaced with symbols that were more benign so as not to attract the attention of the law. In 1964, a new kind of slot machine was produced by pinball machine manufacturer Bally. The machine ran on electricity and featured sound and light effects never seen before. The company kept adding more reels, bigger coin hoppers, and larger jackpots to their machines, and by 1978 they had cornered 90% of the slot machine market. By this time, they had hired a computer programmer by the name of Inge Telnaus who revolutionized slot machines in the 80s by coming up with a computer-based random number generator. Reels would only function as displays for a gamer, as results for a spin were already generated as soon as a coin fell into the slot. As slot machines no longer depended on mechanical processes, the slot machine industry grew exponentially. The past 20-30 years saw many innovations in slot machine technology and game design, with the addition of bonus game-within-game features as well as multi-line betting in modern machines. Charles Fey’s humble 3-reel format has still retained its charm, though, and this is evidenced by the almost endless varieties of slot machines you will find in any casino or gaming arcade, many of them having the option of still being operated by a lever. Online casinos, the oldest of which sprang up in the mid 90s offer, the same plethora of slot machines at the gambler’s convenience. There’s no need to go to a particular casino to look for a certain type of slot machine. Now, if only there were such things as USB levers, and USB coin hoppers! Like with a lot of other gambling activities, winning at slot machines involves pure luck. No mental or physical skill is required, and traditionally, all that’s needed is the pulling of a lever—hence the term “one-armed bandit” for slot machines. These days, slots may involve pushing a button, touching a screen, or clicking with a mouse—slots don’t even have to be machines in the physical sense, as they may exist as software. Neither do they even necessarily have slots anymore, as credits can be loaded into them automatically. What we know to be the slot machine, although a relatively recent addition to gambling culture, has endured from the mechanical to the electronic, and now to the virtual era of gambling.