A History of land and online casino slot machines
Sittman and Pitt of Brooklyn, New York developed a gambling machine in 1891 is a precursor to the modern slot machine. This slot machine contained 5 drums holding a total of 50 card faces and was based on poker. This machine proved extremely popular and soon there was hardly a bar in the city that didn't have one or more of the machines bar-side. Players would insert a nickel and press a lever, which would spin the drums and the cards they held, the player hoping for a good poker hand.

There was no direct payout mechanism, so a pair of Kings might get you a free beer, whereas a Royal Flush could payout cigars or drinks, the prizes wholly dependent on what was on offer at the local establishment. In order to make the odds better for the house, two cards were typically removed from the "deck": the Ten of Spades and the Jack of Hearts, which cut the odds of winning a Royal Flush by half. The drums could also be re-arranged to further reduce a player's chance of winning.

The first "one-armed bandit" was invented in 1887. Charles Fey devised a machine with three spinning reels containing a total of five symbols: horseshoes, diamonds, spades, hearts and a Liberty Bell. The Liberty Bell gave the machine its name. By replacing ten cards with five symbols and using three reels instead of five drums, the complexity of reading a win was considerably reduced, allowing Fey to devise an effective automatic payout mechanism. Three bells in a row produced the biggest payoff, ten nickels. Liberty Bell was a huge success and spawned a thriving mechanical gaming device industry. Even when the use of these gambling devices was banned in his home State after a few years, Fey still couldn't keep up with demand for the game elsewhere.

Another early machine gave out winning in the form of fruit flavoured chewing gums with pictures of the flavours as symbols on the reels. The popular cherry and melon symbols derive from this machine. The "BAR" symbol now common in slot machines was derived from an early logo of the Bell-Fruit Gum Company. In 1964, Bally developed the first fully electromechanical slot machine called Money Honey.

Most games have a variety of winning combinations of symbols, often posted on the face of the machine. If a player matches a combination according to the rules of the game, the online casino slot machine pays the player cash or some other sort of value, such as extra games.

The 9 line online casino slot games are becoming more and more popular. These are themed online casino slot games have graphics and music based on popular entertainers or TV programs. The online casino slot games have a bonus round and allow variable amounts of credits with 1 to 5 credits per line being typical. The higher the amount bet, the higher the payout will be.

Video slots vs reel slots...
One of the main differences between video slots and reel slots is in the way payouts are calculated. With reel slots, the only way to win the maximum jackpot is to play the maximum number of coins (usually 3, sometimes 4, or even 5 coins per spin). With video slots, the fixed payout values are multiplied by the number of coins per line that are being bet. Said another way: on a reel slot, it is to the player's advantage to play with the maximum number of coins available. On video slots, it is recommended to play as many individual lines as possible.

As an example: On the "Wheel of Fortune" reel online casino slot, the player must play 3 coins per spin to be eligible to trigger the bonus round and possibly win the jackpot. On the Wheel of Fortune video online casino slot, the chances of triggering the bonus round or winning the maximum jackpot are exactly the same regardless of the number of coins bet on each line.

Larger casinos offer online casino slot machines with denominations from $.01 (penny slots) all the way up to $100.00 or more per credit.

Large denomination online casino slot machines often have team of hosts to cater to the needs of the high-rollers who play there. This is a great place to be if you want free drinks. The problem is, you'll probably lose a few hundred dollors while you're waiting for your "free" drink to come...