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Many believe that the first mechanical poker machines did not appear in the gambling scene until the 1980’s. In 1891 however, two men, Sittman and Pitt of Brooklyn began to manufacture the first nationally known poker card machines. By 1896, they could be found in virtually every one of Brooklyn's 3,117 licensed liquor establishments.
A newspaper headline from 1896 asked, "Who hasn't dropped a nickel in the slot of these seductive little poker machines found in almost any place where men most do congregate?"
How Did Mechanical Poker Machines Work?
Most of the early Video poker models, called drop card machines, employed 50 cards on five drums, two cards short of a complete deck. Usually the cards missing were the Jack of Hearts and the Ten of Spades, cutting the possibility of a Royal Flush in half. Cards could also be rearranged on the reels to further reduce wins. Award cards were often printed on both sides with separate pay schedules for free drinks and cigars. Upon inserting a nickel and pushing the video poker handle lever, the drums would spin and flip the cards. A winning hand could pay up to 100 cigars or drinks for a Royal Flush, 40 for a Straight Flush, and lesser awards for a pair of Kings or better.
In 1896, the New York Company and their agent, cigar dealer Charles Leonhardt, Jr., formed the Monarch Card Machine Company and quickly introduced two of the most prominent poker games of the day. The Monarch Brownie was the first machine to use a front bottom window to display all nickels played, and to hold the last one in sight. The latter feature was incorporated to discourage the use of counterfeit coins, a scourge that had menaced the video poker industry since its inception.
Pioneer slot manufacturer, inventor and operator, Charles August Fey, was an intimate participant in the first half-century of the poker machine industry. His three-reel Liberty Bell, built in 1899, was the forerunner of more than a million bell slot machines that would be manufactured over the next half century.
In 1896 Fey had opened a factory at 406 Market Street, a location he proudly referred to as "the best-equipped poker machine shop west of the Mississippi." Included in the poker machine lines he created here were the wheel machines, capable of a cash payout, and the prevalent card machines. Two of these 50-card poker machines were the 6 Way Paying Teller, using 5 rows of drop cards, and a companion model called The Duke, which had the cards mounted on 5 reels. While the ultimate poker machine would be one capable of paying awards automatically, this was not mechanically feasible with five-reel machines. The Superior Court decision in December 1897 decreeing slot machines to be legal devices, opened the door for a cash paying poker machine. The following year Fey introduced the three-reel Card Bell. This was the first "bell" machine, a term which for many years was the common trade parlance for the three-reel slot machines, used in casinos today.
The automatic payouts on the Card Bell ranged from 2 to 20 coins, the highest being paid when the poker player was able to line up a simulated Royal Flush, Ace, King, and Queen in one suit.
The later Liberty Bell award cards had the poker machine payouts listed on the reverse side. These poker machine pay cards, used after the abolishment of check-pay in 1902, displayed the wins in free drinks. The same playing card symbols were displayed on poker machines manufactured by companies such as Mills and Caille until 1910.
The most important innovation in poker machines came in 1901 when Charles Fey added the "draw" feature. On the first pull, all five drums of cards began to spin. When they stopped, the player had the option of improving his hand by pushing corresponding buttons to hold selected cards. A second handle pull would spin the remaining cards and the final hand would appear. According to Fey, "When I built the original draw poker machine, I found it to be the most consistent money maker in counter games that I have known." A later adaptation, Skill-Draw, "is the same poker game with all the old fascination, modernized to meet present day operating conditions." This poker game became so successful between 1935 and 1941 that Fey gave his top Skill-Draw salesman a new LaSalle automobile.
History of Electronic Poker
The age of electronic poker games began in 1964 with the Nevada Electronics' solid state "21" machines. By the mid-1970s, other gambling machine manufacturers had built solid state 21, dice, roulette, horse racing, and poker machines. The most successful of these was the Dale Electronics' Poker-Matic, which could be found in most Nevada casinos.
A milestone for electronic slots occurred in 1975 when the Fortune Coin Company introduced the first video poker bell slot machine in Las Vegas. The new poker machine received only mild acceptance by the casinos, which purchased it primarily as a novelty. It was not until it was converted to a draw poker machine that its potential became apparent. In 1976, Bally built a black and white video poker machine and eight months later the Fortune Coin Company countered with a color version of the popular poker machine game.
A new slot manufacturing giant, guided by the foresight and coin machine expertise of its founder, William "Si" Redd, emerged in 1975. After selling his Nevada Distributing Company to Bally Manufacturing, Redd arranged for $1.5 million to be subtracted from the purchase price so he could keep the rights to the electronic games, including the video slots. Redd's new company, A-1 Supply, soon acquired pioneer video game manufacturer, Nutting Enterprises, and began building Blackjack and Draw Poker console machines.
The first century of coin operated poker game devices ended in 1990 with animated video poker machines becoming one of the hottest sensations of modern-day casinos.
History of Modern Video Poker
The game of video poker was made possible by of the invention of the computer chip, thus its origins can be traced back to the mid 1970's. The actual term "video poker" is used to refer to the many variations of the original poker game.
Video poker is a combination of slot machines and the normal five-card draw poker game. The obvious differences are that video poker is played against a machine as opposed to humans. The primary goals are still the same - to achieve the certain hands indicated on the payout table for the particular game you are playing. Each game may have unique rules and payoffs, but all are played in a comparable manner based on the original poker game.
Popular video poker games include: Aces & Faces, Deuces & Joker, Double Joker, Deuces Wild, Jacks or Better, Joker Poker, Louisiana Double, Tens or Better.
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