Video Poker History

Video poker is ultimately two games in one – poker and slot machines. This game which is a marriage of the excitement of poker with the adrenalin-rushed thrills of slot machines is one of the most popular floor games both online and offline. In order to understand the development of video poker, one must first understand the development of both poker and slot machines.

Poker originated from a number of vying games in the Middle Ages such as As-nas, Poche and Brag. The modern version of poker, however, developed in the United States in the mid-1800s after Jonathan Green wrote about a ‘cheating game’ being played on the river boats on the Mississippi River. This game was described as using 20 cards including tens, face cards and aces. Poker ultimately began spreading to the west and was one of the favorite pastimes in saloons and bars. During this period, poker developed and received many rule modifications and exciting features such as community cards, wild cards, jackpots and flushes.

Slot machines also developed in the United States and were based on poker card face combinations. Sittman and Pitt Company were responsible for creating the first coin-operated gambling machines in the late 1800s. These machines did not pay out coins, instead they awarded prizes such as cigars, liquor and tobacco. These machines were operated using a mechanism that required the player to place a coin in a slot and pull the handle – the five drums would be activated and would spin: payouts were dependant on the pictures displayed when the spinning stopped.

Charles Fey developed the first famous slot machine in the 1880s and he named it Liberty Bell. This machine created waves in the market and took it by storm. Liberty Bell first displayed card-face pictures and later models added symbols such as bells, stars and horseshoes. Fey worked non-stop to fulfil the orders for the machines and finally partnered with Mills Novelty Company to produce further variations of the slot machines. The popularity of slot machines has lasted until today.

In the early and mid-1900s mechanical poker machines were a craze whose popularity rose and fell. Electronic games were first produced in 1964 when Nevada Electronics introduced the “21” machine. Many other companies realized that the future was in the electronics market and began producing roulette, horse-racing and poker gambling machines. Poker Matic, developed by Dale Electronics.

The development of personal computers in the mid-1970s facilitated the creation of video poker. The first games had very primitive graphics and were played on a TV type monitor, however the excited crowds did not find this to be a deterrent. In 1975 a video bell slot machine was created by The Fortune Coin Company and this machine later became a draw poker machine. Another leading company in the field of video games, SIRCOMA, developed Draw Poker in 1979 and has continued to produce similar machines until today.

Video poker machines are now a solid feature in both land casinos and in online casinos. Players love the combination of poker and slot machines, and many can be seen seated for hours in front of their favorite video poker machines.