Regardless of whether you call them slot machines, fruit machines, or slots, this game of chance is incredibly popular, with each version using its own visual language. In this article, we’ll take a brief look at each iteration of the slot machine and explore the different symbols they’ve used throughout their history.

• Slot Machine Symbol Meaning
• Available Slot Meaning
• Open Slots Meaning
• Slot Machine Symbol Meanings
• Slot Machine Symbol Crossword Clue
• Mail Slot Meaning

Each type of slot machine and the symbols they used

Slot Machine Symbols Explained There are a number of different classic and video slot symbols that come up a lot, and many players have no idea of the history of these symbols. If you look at any classic slot, and many video slots for that matter, you'll see certain types of symbols and motifs come up. Symbols of Slot Machines Fruits. We all know the fruit machines like watermelon, cherries, orange, and lemons. But what do the symbols of Slot Machines exactly mean? Well, at the beginning of the 20th century, slot machines were strictly forbidden. Or at least the ones who were working with cash. That’s why the slot reels started to show fruit symbols.

The poker machine – 1891

The poker machine was invented in 1891 by Sittman and Pitt. This game had five drums, each with 10 different playing card symbols on each row. A game began when the player inserted a nickel and pulled the lever on the side of the machine. The drums spun, and when they stopped, the player received a prize based on their combination of cards on the pay line. If these cards matched one of the different types of poker hands, the player received a prize. Naturally, the more valuable the poker hand, the better the prize on offer.

Unlike the modern slot machine, the player needed to manually claim their prize from the owner or manager of the machine, as the five drums system made automatic payouts too complicated for this device. This design also came short of the 52 cards in a typical deck, which saw the removal of the ten of spades and jack of hearts.

Different sources have different views on this, but some of them believe that the wild symbol has been a part of slot machines since they were first invented. The wild symbol is seen as the equivalent of the joker in a pack of cards, which supports the argument that these symbols could have been introduced as early as the poker machine. A wild symbol offers you the chance to get a winning combination, without necessarily having a specific match on the pay line. The wild card has evolved dramatically and differs from game to game, and we’ll look at these different categories later on.

Finally, it’s important to note the influence of the playing card symbols originally used in this device, and how slot machines still make use of these popular icons to this day.

The Liberty Bell – Between 1887 and 1895

Charles Fey, a car mechanic, created the Liberty Bell. The exact date for the invention of the Liberty Bell is unknown, with some sources placing its invention in 1887, and others saying it was released in 1895. What is certain is that many credit Fey as the father of the modern slot machine. His device laid down the basic design and added to the library of symbols that would be loved by players for generations.

The Liberty Bell was similar to the poker machine, but only had three drums. This was vitally important as it reduced the complexity of the combinations and allowed Fey to design an automatic payout system for it.

Another important change was in regards to the symbols used. This machine only had three of the four card suits: diamonds, spades, and hearts. It dropped the suit of clubs and introduced horseshoes (a common symbol for luck at the time) and the Liberty Bell. Depending on the combination of symbols on the pay line, players could receive a financial payout. The best combination was three Liberty Bells, which had a jackpot of 10 nickels.

The fruit slot machine – 1902

The fruit slot machine was born out a legal necessity in 1902, when a ban on slot machines with cash payouts came into effect. Manufacturers of these machines decided to circumvent the ban by changing the machine in two ways.

The first change was to the prizes. Instead of cash, the payout for many machines changed to fruit-flavoured bubblegum and sweets.

The second change was to the symbols on these machines. Instead of the three card suits, lucky horseshoe and Liberty Bell, there were different fruit symbols, such as the now iconic cherries and grapes. These symbols were introduced to match the flavours of the bubblegum and sweets that were given out as prizes. A player that managed to get three matching fruit symbols on the pay line received the correspondingly flavoured bubblegum or sweet.

However, there was one symbol that bucked this trend: the cherry. Normally, players needed to have three matching symbols on the pay line. The cherry, the first scatter symbol, operates under a slightly different set of rules. The cherry symbols could appear in any position on the reel to win. For example, three cherries in the top, middle, and bottom row of each drum would net you a prize.

In modern slot machines, the cherry might be replaced by another scatter symbol, and could also help a player get extra free spin rounds.

The BAR icon is also said to have evolved from the Bell-Fruit Bar Company logo that was added to the machines around this time. This symbol originally looked like a bar of gum.

The Money Honey, the first electric slot machine – 1964

The Money Honey, developed by veteran gaming company Bally, introduced a number of new features to the slot machine.

This machine was no longer purely mechanical, but used an electromechanical system. This change allowed Bally to introduce a multi-coin multiplier system, where players could insert three or five coins to increase their potential payout. It also introduced a bottomless hopper, allowing for payouts of up to 500 coins.

The symbols used on this device include the traditional fruits and bells, but also the Bally logo, stars and Money Honey girl. Three of the Bally logo paid out 150 coins, while three of the fruit symbols with the bonus stars paid out 100 coins. The Money Honey girls were a scatter symbol and if you got three in any position, you received 18 coins.

The Money Honey also featured a lever, but the electromechanical system meant that it could be removed from future designs. A button system was eventually introduced to replace the lever.

The birth of the video slot machine – 1976

The Fortune Coin Company first introduced players to the video slot machine. Gone were the reels, replaced by a 19-inch Sony Trinitron screen with animated drums and symbols. A random-number generator made of logic boards, which was considered rudimentary by today’s standards, was used to drive the “luck” behind the machine.

The switch to digital opened the door for many new features, with video slot developers introducing super jackpots by linking multiple machines across the electronic system. They also introduced a number of new concepts including:

• Stacked or stacked wild symbols – Stacked symbols are stacked across multiple rows on a reel, therefore increasing the chance that they will land on the pay line. These stacked symbols can be regular or wild symbols, depending on the game.
• Sticky or sticky wild symbols – Unlike other symbols, which rotate with the reel, sticky symbols maintain the same position for several spins. The player can use this to their advantage to try to land a specific sequence, for example, to trigger a specific win, or once it was introduced to the game, land a bonus round.
• Expanding or expanding wild symbols – When a player landed on this symbol, it would grow to fill the entire reel.

In 1996, a new feature would be added to the game by video slot software developer WMS, that would dramatically impact the way it played. Their game, Reel ‘Em In, introduced players to bonus rounds that played out on a second screen.

Generally, bonus symbols needed to land on specific lines in a specific combination in order to trigger a bonus round. The bonus game’s mechanics also varied greatly, depending on each game. For example, the bonus game might include rare multipliers that players would otherwise not have access to.

In order for bonus rounds to trigger, games needed bonus symbols. By this point, the visual iconography used for bonus symbols differed drastically from game to game, depending on their theme.

The introduction of online slots

As with many other games, it wasn’t long before developers began to introduce digital versions of these games so people could play slots online. At first, these were direct recreations of their offline counterparts, but due to the additional freedom these online platforms provided, game developers could add greater variety to the experience. As a result, the number of online games exploded, with each new version of online slots coming with their own symbols and icons.

While there are too many games in existence today to unpack the meaning of the symbols in each game, thankfully the developers and providers of these slots games provide you with the tools you need to understand the visual language of the game. Some will even allow you to try the game for free so that you can learn the systems of the game before you hand over your hard earned money.

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Slot machine reelsymbols have been constant features since slot machines were inventedmany years ago. The most common of these symbols are the cherrysymbols and the BAR symbol which have been seen on standard slotmachine reels since 1909 and 1910. Initially, BAR was the companylogo of a particular firm and it was a picture of a bubble gum packthat was eventually redesigned as a BAR. Depending on how many reelsthe machine has, the BAR symbol that secures the win could either besingle or multiple.

History of the BARSymbol in Slot Machines

Slot Machine Symbol Meaning

In 1910, HerbertStephen Mills of Mills Novelty Company rebranded the famous fruitreel symbols by adding the picture of a bubble gum pack. Eventually,it wasn’t just a combination of fruits and chewing gum packs, it wasjust a stylized bar. Some writers believe that the BAR symbol was thelogo of a Bell-Gum Fruit company. Keep in mind that in the early1900s, slot machines were illegal in the United States. At the time,slot machines were not called slot machines. They were calledone-armed bandits and they were known for literally swallowing moneyand hardly paying out.

The bad reputationof slot machines and the ban that was placed on slot machines didn’tdiscourage people from using them at all costs. The government had toput in several measures to make sure people stopped using machinesthat promised users significant cash prizes as the payout. To makethe slot machines more interesting for players who didn’t want tobreak the law, producers eventually added the fruits and bubble gumsymbols to the reels. Rather than getting cash payouts, the machineswere set to pay out noncash prizes.

The Bell-Fruit Gumcompany was among the many companies that started taking advantage ofthis innovation. The company logo was added to almost every slotmachine that was produced at the time and it looked just like a BAR.Rather than serve as a slot machine, these machines were seen asvending machines because the pictures and logos of bubble gumcompanies were added to the side of every machine. There is still alot of controversy regarding the real name of the Bell-Fruit GumCompany but whatever the case may be, it is one of the most commonorigin stories of the BAR symbol.

There is anothertheory that Mills Novelty Company partnered with the Bell-Fruit GumCompany to use their logo on their slot machines. Eventually, theMills Novelty Company started creating slot machines with woodinstead of iron. This company was also responsible for inventing theslot machine jackpot. When the same symbol appears three times or acertain combination of symbols appear at the same time on the reels,the player would hit the jackpot and win big. All the coins in themachine will be paid out to the player.

What’s TheDifference Between Slot Machine Symbols And Icons?

Every slot machinehas a rich combination of symbols and icons. Both terms are used fortwo different things even if some individuals tend to interchangethem. All slot machines have pay tables and reels. It is on thesereels and pay tables that slot symbols appear. During each spin,different symbols spin around the reels. When the reels stopspinning, the outcome of the game is determined by the last symbolsthat are displayed on the reels. If you want to learn what eachsymbol will fetch you, you should study the paytable. All the detailsabout the symbols are displayed on the paytable. You’ll know whichcombinations you need to hit the jackpot or win any amount at all.

The first-ever gamemachine symbol was created by Charles Fey in 1895 and it was thesymbol of a playing card. The symbol was used for a machine that issimilar to the slot machine but was meant for poker. Different cardsymbols were created for these machines at the time. Many slotmachines today still use card symbols. Fey also created the libertybell symbol and horseshoe symbols.

The icon is the logoof the slot machine. It is usually designed based on the theme andname of the game. For example, if the name of a slot machine is Wheelof Fortune, the icon would be a wheel. If the title of the game isGods of Egypt, the icon can be a picture of Anubis or any othermythical creature in Egypt. The icon usually appears next to the nameof the game. Most games have more than one icon but all of them arebased on the theme of the machine. An icon is to a slot machine whata book cover is to a book. It is the manufacturer’s way of brandingthe slot machine so it can stand out from others in the market.

Types of SlotSymbols

Available Slot Meaning

We’ve mentioned afew of the most common slot symbols out there. However, there are somany others and different manufacturers are still coming up withunique slot machine symbols to make the game more interesting toplayers. We can’t talk about every symbol out there but we can talkabout the most common categories of slot symbols. Some of the mostcommon are as follows;

Open Slots Meaning

• Fruit Slot Machine Symbols

After the cardsymbols, the fruit symbols are the oldest slot machine symbols in theUnited States. The most common fruit symbols and the first to becreated were grapes, cherries, melons, lemons, and oranges. Machinesthat displayed these symbols are called fruit slot machines. Some ofthese machines paid people fruit gums instead of cash as statedearlier. When players saw lemons on the slot reels, they will be paidin lemon-flavored gums. If the reels displayed oranges, they would bepaid in orange-flavored gums. The number of gums players got dependedon the combination. The higher the winning combination, the more gumsplayers would get. These sorts of slot machines have beendiscontinued. Now, fruit slot machines payout cash prizes like otherslot machines. You can get bubble gums from your regular vendingmachines or chewing gum dispenser.

• Standard Reel Slot Symbols

Slot Machine Symbol Meanings

The standard reelsymbols include but are not limited to symbols of Tens, Kings, Aces,Jacks, and Queens. They are as old as the slot machines themselves.The classic slots of old still come with these standard symbols butthe more modern slots like the video slot machines come with so manynew and beautiful symbols.

• Bonus Symbols

Every modern slotmachine comes with bonus symbols which give players numerous bonusamounts each time they appear on the reels.

• Scatter Symbols

You’ll also see thescatter symbols which can either pay your regular amount or give youyour regular amount along with a bonus.

Slot Machine Symbol Crossword Clue

• Wild Symbols

Let’s not forgetabout the wild symbols that are of different types and typicallyrepresent a winning combination. Having a wild symbol or two alongwith another symbol can give you a winning combination. Wild symbolsin slot machines can be compared to wild cards in card games.

Mail Slot Meaning

These are just themajor categories of slot symbols that you should expect to see in atypical slot machine. Each machine has subcategories and designs thatrepresent their theme. With the production of new slot machines, itis a surprise that classic symbols are still in existence today.There are still many regular players who would rather not play a slotmachine game than play a game without classic slots. These are thepeople that keep the tradition going and help them retain theirrelevance.

Bottomline

Whether it is theBAR symbol, card symbol or any other symbol listed above, you cannottalk about the origin of slot machines without talking about slotmachine symbols. Slot machines are here to stay. To make things evenmore exciting, you can play a slot game with your computer or mobiledevice when you don’t have the time to visit a landbased casino. Thecreation of online slot machines has only helped in promoting andmaintaining this game that has become a crucial part of the gamblingculture. As a final note of caution, you must gamble responsibly. Youmay not need a lot of money to play a single slot game but the amountcan pile up quickly. To minimize losses while playing slot games, gofor machines that offer unconditional free spins. This will help yousave money. Most importantly, make sure you play within your budgetno matter how interesting it is.