The slot machine was invented in 1887 by Charles Frey of San Fransisco. The name “slot machine” is used for American gaming machines. In Great Britain, these machines are called “fruit machines”. In Australia, the machines are known as “poker machines” or “pokies”. The gila138 were used for many years as an activity to keep the wives of gamblers in Las Vegas busy. At the time, the machines only took coins, and usually not for very large denominations. Women stayed busy, usually not spending too much money, while their husbands played black jack, roulette, and the crap table.

At the time, most of this gambling was done in Las Vegas, Monaco, or small islands that allowed casino gambling. Slots gambling was not a big part of public life in most parts of the country except for Las Vegas. Most of the people with gambling problems were confined to the Las Vegas and surrounding areas and not many people really heard about gambling addiction and its’ true dangers.

In 1979, gambling was passed in New Jersey, and Atlantic City became the Las Vegas of the east coast. In the mid to late eighties, video style poker games were developed and addiction to slots were becoming a bit more pervasive. As of this article, there are casinos in all states except two. Most of these states have allowed just slot machine gambling and no access to table games.

These are certainly very scary statistics, and it can only get worse as slot machine gambling addiction continues to permeate our society both in the U.S and the rest of the world. The public is very ignorant about the inner workings of a slot machine. People are unaware of the true odds in an electronic gaming machine and they do not realize that the odds are truly stacked against them. Many addicted slot machine gamblers also believe in certain myths regarding slot machines. Some of these debunked myths are as follows:

Although some machines may have a 90 percent payout, it may be weeks before it actually pays a jackpot. Just because the person before you pumped a lot of money into the slot machine, it does not mean that “you” will hit the jackpot. These are just some of the debunked myths about slot machine gambling, and there are many more. Slot machine gambling is not just a harmless past-time anymore. Addiction is a serious social problem, and the consequences of this type of addiction is still yet to be seen.