The slots industry has been characterised by near constant technological development for pretty much its entire existence, and this is one of the main reasons why slots magic gambling is now by far the most popular type of gambling in the world. People can often forget that the industry came from very humble beginnings, with a Californian mechanical engineer called Charles D. Fey making crucial advances, and ending up with the Liberty Bell slot machine.

A hell of a lot has changed since then, however, and the global slots industry is quite literally unrecognisable from what it looked like at the start of the 20^th century. There have been numerous technological advancements, and these have all served to push the slots industry to the forefront of the overall gambling world. Read on for some tech advancements in the slot industry during the 20^th century. 

Commercialised casino slot machines 

One of the first big technological advancements in the 20^th century was the proliferation of genuinely commercial casino slot machines, something that happened very quickly after gambling was legalised in places such as Nevada in the US. Suddenly slot machines no longer had to be played illegally in the corner of shady bars or taverns, and the slot industry was quick to react. 

Very quickly Charles D. Fey’s original Liberty Bell machine design was altered to make it easier to create on mass, and in the course of just a few years hundreds of new slot machines poured into the US gambling market. 

Rudimentary bonus features 

The next big technological advancement came when slot developers managed to start packing their machines full of rudimentary bonus features, with symbols such as wilds first becoming popular. This was a crucial development in the history of slot machine gambling, as it ended up making the experience so much more exciting. 

When the first rudimentary bonus features started arriving on the scene things really started to get interesting, and the potential pay outs increased exponentially too.  

RNG and video slots 

Now then, probably the biggest tech advancement of the 20^th century was the discovery of the RNG, or Random Number Generator, back in the 1980s, something that enabled developers to create video slots for the first time. Before then developers were restricted to making slot machines that worked with genuine physical reels, however the RNG made it possible for developers to create virtual reels that still spun completely randomly. 

Video slots completely changed the game when it comes to slot machines, with hundreds of thousands more gamblers being encouraged to join in on the fun. 

The beginnings of online slots 

Video slots also set the scene for the beginnings of the online slot industry right at the turn of the 20^th century, something that has caused the overall slot market to balloon exponentially in size. Developers like Microgaming and Eyecon were busy trying to create the first online slot during the 90s, however they only reached commercial success at the start of the 21^st century.