One Armed Bandits

The name one armed bandits was given to slot machines due to their appearance, the usually have a handle or arm on the side, and if they are not paying out you will feel like you have been robbed, and the name often given to a robber is a bandit, so it stands to reason that a one armed bandit is a slot machine!

One of the earliest slot machines hailed from the Mills Slot Machine Company, and these devices were completely mechanical, in fact they were so well made that there are many of the original machines still in existence.

One Armed Bandits - How they work

One armed bandits simply required a coin or token to be inserted into the top of the slot machine, once a coin had been inserted it would allow the arm to become active, and by giving the arm a pull the momentum would spin the reels.

Once the reels had come to a stop the mechanical workings of the one armed bandit would check whether a winning combination had spun in, it would do this by a series of metal plates and rods.

Once a winning combination had lined up the rods would pass through holes in the plates (which sat at the side of each reel) and then would force coins to the value of the win out of a coin tube. Even though this was a totally mechanical procedure these one armed bandits were very robust and reliable.

However it didn't take long before people realised that they could often manipulate these mechanical slot machines to their own advantage, and there are many tails of slot cheats prowling casinos in the early days to rip off fortunes from one armed bandits!

How a one armed made a profit was due to the number of symbols on each reel. The low value wins such as Cherries and Oranges would have more symbols on each reel and the higher valued wins such as Bells and Bars would have less symbols on each reel.

By working out how many of each symbol was on each reel the slot machine manufacturers could ensure that the one armed bandit would have a payout percentage of less than 100%, this ensured that casino operators would be able to guarantee that they made a profit from each slot machine over its life time.

You can now play one armed bandits online, these are often classified as classic slot machines and here on the online slot 4u website we have hundreds of them fully reviewed, so if this type of basic slot machine appeals to you then visit our Classic Slot Machines section for more information on which slots are available and where