Slot machines are easily one of the most popular types of past times in casinos, and the same also holds for online gaming. Since their introduction, they have held to their first position in the popularity of gambling games. But you might not know that they are tied to a number of interesting facts; for instance, if you think that the most slot machines are located in the U.S., you're wrong - even though Las Vegas indeed is in the U.S. Read 15 myths and facts that you might not have known about slot machines.
- The global leader in the number of slot machines is, perhaps surprisingly, Japan. It boasts an impressive count of one slot machine per 27 inhabitants.
- In the U.S., there's a total of about 800,000 registered slot machines. More than a quarter of that is located in Las Vegas.
- The biggest "brick-and-mortar" jackpot from slot machines was recorded in Las Vegas, in the Excalibur hotel. A 25-year-old software engineer came home with an astounding win of 39.7 million USD.
- In the online world, the biggest win was recoded by a certain Jonathan Heywood, who won a progressive jackpot in Mega Moolah slot game amounting to 13.2 million pounds. And he only needed 25 pences to do so.
- There's a bunch of myths surrounding slot machines. One of the most popular ones is the claim that if someone wins on a slot machine, then it goes "cold" and stops giving out wins for a certain amount of time. Of course that's not true; in fact it's possible to win again, right in the next round.
- Let's discuss more myths... do you know any others? Many players believe that slot machines closer to the exit from the casino are more generous - that it's easier to win there. Others are convinced that on workdays (when people have less time to play) it's easier to win than on weekends.
- Regardless of what else you hear, keep in mind that when playing online slot machines, as soon as you press the button it's not possible to further influence the result of the spin.
- Slot machines have many names, depending on where you're at in the world. Some of the most popular ones include Fruit machines, Bell machines, Poker machines, Puggies and of course One-armed bandits.
- The first slot machine in the world was created in 1895. It was called the Liberty Bell and was made by Charles Fey, a car mechanic by trade.
- The first video slot machine was created in 1976, in California. It was developed by Fortune Coin and the first venue to showcase them to real players was the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas.
- Based on latest estimates, slot games amount to up to 85% of all earnings of casinos.
- Online slot machines are easily the most popular games in any online casino.
- In the half of 20th century was the largest classic slot machine in the world called the Super Big Bertha; it is two and a half meters tall and is two meters wide. It has been in operation since 1950.
- The first slot machine, made in 1895, was a very simple mechanical machine. Today's slot machines consist of approximately 1200 separate parts on average and weight 120 kilograms on average.
- It is currently legal to operate slot machines in 41 countries in the world. Their number increased by nearly one quarter since 2000.