Ever wonder why so many classic slots have the same symbols in common? For example, the majority of traditional slot machines have fruit symbols including lemons, cherries and watermelons as well as the bar, the bell and the lucky seven. These symbols are almost instantly recognisable even to that who aren’t regular slot players and are now deeply embedded in our culture. Let’s delve into the history of slot symbols so see where they come from and what has made them stick around – play Slotzo site
The first-ever slot machine symbols
No doubt you will have seen the classic fruit machine symbols many times either in online slot games or in your local casino or pub, they feature in many slot games. Even if you haven’t actually played a traditional slot game, you’ll instantly recognise these symbols and in the UK classic slot symbols are known as fruit machine symbols because they consist of tropical fruits.
However, they weren’t the first symbols on original slot machines. The first slot machine symbols consisted of poked cards which you will still see on online and land-based video poker slot games to this day. These type of symbols date back to pre-slot machines where poker machines and rotating wheel games were commonly played before the slot machines were even invented and were extremely popular in America in the 1800s. In many ways, slot machines were modelled on these types of games and used poker inspired symbols and many slots still have traditional card symbols, with the higher value cards such as 10, Jack, Queen and King being most common in modern video slot games.
The Bell, The Horseshoe & The Lucky 7
Classic slot machine symbols like the famous golden bell come date back to original slot machines which were invented in 1895 known as the “Liberty Bell” slot machine which had three reels rather than five and the card symbols were replaced with card suits including diamonds, spades and hearts the horseshoe, typically associated with good luck and of course the Liberty Bell after the name of the machine. The Lucky 7 symbol is somewhat of a mystery but most people believe that as time progressed and fewer people owned and used horses the luck relating to a horseshoe was phased out and replaced with lucky number 7.
A fruity facelift
In the 1900s, in many countries, slot machines were banned and playing slot machines had negative connotations and were associated with ripping people off and ruining cash-strapped communities. In a bid to turn slot machines’ bad rep around, many slot machine manufacturers replaced the symbols with fruit and sweets to make them look more appealing, light-hearted, fun and innocent. These machines were known as “vendor” machines for a while as you would receive fruit-flavoured sweets as prizes for landing three matching symbols! The fruity slot symbols stuck as many people liked these new, fresher symbols and now you’ll still see fruit symbols on modern slots and thankfully you can now win huge jackpots, not just sweets and bubble-gum!
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