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Fruit Machine

Despite the name, a fruit machine is not a vending machine that dispenses fruit, although those do exist. A fruit machine is the British term for a slot machine, a gambling device. The slot machine is the general name for the device for most of the world, although in Australia they call slot machines ‘pokies’.

A fruit machine, or slot machine, is comprised of a series of spinning reels that have various symbols on each reel. On a single play, each reel is spun independently so that it lands in a random position. Sometimes this means a win (for instance if you get 3 symbols in a row on a 3 reel machine), and a lot of the time it means a loss. The win to loss ratio of these machines is calculated via some very complex mathematics.

So what about the fruit part? Let us explain a little further about how the term ‘fruit’ managed to enter the British lexicon.

The term fruit machine came about due to the depiction of fruits as the symbols on what we know as slot machines.

Charles Fey was the original inventor of slot machines, developing the first slot machine in 1894. From there he went on to develop the famous 3 reel Liberty Bell machine. The symbols on this machine were a diamond, a spade, a club, a heart, a horseshoe, and (not surprisingly) a liberty bell.

After these games started to take off, at one point during the prohibition, a designer at Operator Bell. Mills decided to place fruits as symbols on the reels for something a little bit different. These machines turned out to become very popular, and in Britain, became known as fruit machines, due to the popularity of the fruit reel games.

Of course, the pure mechanical function of the one-armed bandit eventually made way for computerized designs, that you now see in casinos, local pubs, and gaming halls all across the world. There’s now even the option to use play for free websites online.

While there are still slots games that feature fruits as their symbols, there are games available now with literally any symbol, through to fantasy characters like from Game of Thrones. Despite this complete diversity in symbols, the name fruit machine still persists in Britain.

So, if you would ever like to play some slots in Britain, and get an inquisitive look on enquiry, maybe just ask where the fruit machines are instead.