Generally the fruits would be cherries, apples, watermelons, lemons and plums. Once the gambling regulations were lifted the fruit symbols still stuck but the machines would pay out hard cash. The pay outs were as such due to the restrictions on gambling in certain states across the US. The symbols were designed as pieces of fruit because the machine would pay out in fruit sweets or chewing gum and depending on which fruit the player landed on would determine which flavour sweet or chewing gum would be won. Three bells in a row was the biggest payout and paid out a grand total of fifty cents.įollowing on from these symbols came the classic fruit symbols hence slot machines sometimes being referred to as fruit machines. The symbols needing to be matched ranged from a horseshoe, a diamond from a deck of playing cards, a spade from a deck of playing cards, a heart from a deck of playing cards and a bell from which the machine took its name, the Liberty Bell. When Charles Fey invented the first slot machine in the late 19 th century, the game was very simple and in order to win players were to match any of the five symbols and the machine would pay out.
