Introduction to Fruit Reel Symbols
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Why do slot machines use fruit reel symbols? Well, to understand why this tradition came to be, we'll have to delve into slot machine history. Slot machines are gambling devices. At first, they weren't slot machines. Nor were they always fruit machines.
Reel symbols are often traditional, including stars, bars, numbers, and various pictured fruits. Fruits can include cherries, plums, oranges, lemons, and watermelons.
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One-Armed Bandits
Initially, slot machines were one-armed bandits. Later, in Great Britain, they became fruit machines. Why? Because pulling a handle activated it. That's how you'd make a bet. Nowadays, of course, we can also push a button.
Fruity Reela
Making a bet happens after entering coins, tokens, cash, or casino credits. Subsequently, the player makes a bet, and the reels with symbols begin to spin. When done spinning, the reel symbols shown lined up along pay lines determine the payout, if any.
Fruit Reel Symbols
The Industry Novelty Company, run by O. D. Jennings, first used fruit reel symbols. This moment in history was a time when legal restrictions on slot machines were beginning. For example, San Francisco banned all 3,300 slot machines within the city in 1909.
To circumvent these new laws on cash-paying slot machines, manufacturers began turning their gambling devices into chewing gum dispensers. They did this by replacing card number and suit reel symbols with fruit reel symbols.
After this change, the reels showed fruit symbols. As a result, any wins were various flavors of gum, as indicated by the winning fruit reel symbols.
Plus, every 'bet' resulted in a win. Therefore, these machines stopped being betting machines an authentically became automatic vending machines.
A Bit More History
Before 1907, slot machines that paid out in coins had already existed for 20 years. Charles Fey of San Francisco invented coin-dispensing slot machines in April 1887.
Before 1887, slot machines were one-armed bandits. The game played was a form of poker. Winning combinations resulted in allowing the player free drinks or cigars.
These machines usually had five reels with ten cards per reel. This collection of reel symbols totaled 50 cards from the standard 52-card deck. The two cards excluded were the Ten of Spades and the Jack of Hearts.
For those readers that play poker, you'll understand that leaving these two cards out of the deck halved the chance of receiving a Royal Flush. This jackpot was the big prize.
Here are a few pictures of these antique slot machines at Cyprus Casino Consultant, Casino Observer, and International Arcade Museum.
Summary of Fruit Reel Symbols
Starting in 1907, Industry Novelty began turning out Bell Fruit Gum slot machines. Another early slot machine manufacturer, Mills Novelty Company, began producing them in 1910.
Fruity Reels
The reels on these slot machines included cherry, melon, orange, apple, and bar symbols with non-cash payouts in the form of fruit-flavored gum, allowing machine owners to avoid prosecution under the anti-gambling laws of that time.
The cherry and bar symbols became traditional to slot machines still commonly used today. The bar symbol was a company logo of a slot manufacturer meant to resemble a stick of gum.
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