Introduction to Why Slot Machines Say Bar

The New York State Gaming Commission said Bookman’s slot machine malfunctioned. “Malfunctions void all pays and plays,” a warning states on all the slot machines in the casino.

Why do slot machines say bar on their reels? Well, to understand why this tradition came to be, we’ll have to delve into slot machine history. First of all, these gambling devices weren’t always called slot machines. Slot machines were originally referred to as a one-armed bandit, then later in Great Britain as a fruit machine.

A slot machine gambling device is activated by pulling a handle or pushing a button. This can only be done after coins, tokens, cash, or casino credits has been entered. Consequently, reels with symbols begin to spin. When done spinning, the symbols shown lined up along pay lines are used to determine the payout, if any.

Reel symbols are often traditional, including stars, bars, numbers, and various pictured fruits. Fruits can include cherries, plums, oranges, lemons, and watermelons. The number seven is also very popular. And, finally, then there are bar reel symbols.

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Bar Reel Symbols

Fruit reel symbols were first used in slot machine by the Industry Novelty Company in 1909. This was quickly followed the next year by Mills Novelty Company of Chicago, recently inherited by Herbert Stephen Mills. But, with a slight addition.

Mills added the photograph of a chewing gum pack along with the fruit reel symbols. Soon after, these photographs of a chewing gum pack were replaced with a stylized bar symbol.

Slot machines have a very rich history. Within gaming device circles of the time, it was well known that Charles Augustus Fey of San Francisco refused to sell or lease the design of his first coin-operated slot machine, the Liberty Bell, which he invented around 1887.

So, how did Mills get the design from Fey? There are two theories. First, that Fey cooperated with Mills to spread the use of slot machines. After all, Fey is known as the “Father of Slots” both for his invention of the coin-operated device as well as popularizing its use.

The second theory is Mills somehow “obtained” a Liberty Bell as a result of a San Francisco saloon robbery in 1905. Less than a year later, Mills produced a new version of the Liberty Bell called either the Mills Liberty Bell or Operator Bell.

During my review of the history of early slot machines, there are also suggestions the bar symbol may have another origin story. It is generally accepted that the bar symbol is a stylized image of a chewing gum pack, as well as a company logo.

According to some historical sources, however, the company having that logo may have been the Bell-Gum Fruit company.

A Bit More History

As mentioned, slot machines have a very rich history, especially in their early days. Besides Why Do Slot Machines Say Bar, there are a few other interesting historical items of interest.

In 1916, another historic slot machine innovation created by the Mills Novelty Company was the jackpot. When a specific combination of reel symbols resulted from a bet, the slot machine would empty its coin hopper of all coins as a prize.

The Mills Novelty would later go on to produce slot machines with wooden cabinets, rather than the original cast iron construction materials.

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Photos of early slot machines are online at Cyprus Casino Consultant, Casino Observer, the International Arcade Museum, and elsewhere. I especially enjoy photos of antique slot machines in my copy of Slot Machines: A Pictorial History of the First 100 Years by Marshall Fey, grandson of “the Father of Slot Machines” Charles Fey.

The Cyprus Casino Consultant website shows 4 slot machines on a waist-high counter top. They appear to have wood cabinets and are each perhaps 30 inches high by 18 inches wide. In metric, that’s about 76 centimeters by 46 centimeters.

Each slot machine is of the one-armed bandit variety, meaning they appear to are activated by first inserting a coin and then pulling a large lever on the right side of the machine. Each of these models appears to accept coins at the top, as well as dispense coins for winners at the bottom.

The Casino Observer website also shows 4 slot machines. Two of these machines are some of the first slot machines, from about 1890, while two others are more modern, ~1940s. The two older slot machines receive coins, but only the poker machine appears to not be able to dispense coins. This poker machine has typical card suits as reel symbols and a cast metal-type cabinet.

It appears to be missing its one-armed bandit lever, perhaps due to damage, or it never had a lever. One older slot machine with coin dispenser capability is clearly identified as a “Liberty Bell”. It rests on cast feet located on each corner. The reel symbols show three Liberty Bells, but its “pay table” shows card suits – not fruit or bars.

The International Arcade Museum website shows a single slot machine. It’s a very old slot machine showing the symbol of the Liberty Bell on its front next to three reels showing Liberty Bell, bar, and fruit reel symbols.

This is probably a “Liberty Bell” by Charles Fey, but must be a slightly later version due to it having obvious fruit and bar reel symbols. It also has a cast metal-type cabinet and the distinctive “feet” of a Liberty Bell. It also has a small tray for coins, suggesting it has automatic payouts.

Charles Fey manufactured about 100 Liberty Bell slot machines for distribution in and around San Francisco. However, there are few of them remaining in existence. The scarcity of Fey’s Liberty Bell is a direct result of a natural disaster occurring shortly after their manufacture: the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.

Summary of Why Slot Machines Say Bar

Starting in 1907, Bell Fruit Gum slot machines were manufactured by Industry Novelty Co. They were followed by the Mills Novelty Company in 1910.

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, and are still commonly used today. The bar symbol was a company logo, originally a photo of a chewing gum pack before being stylized as a bar.

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By Jon H. Friedl, Jr. Ph.D., President
Jon Friedl, LLC

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, numerous companies have changed their policies and have sought new strategies to aid their business.

To help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 among its customers, Walmart has recently launched its touch-free payment system, Walmart Pay.

The company also announced it would be streamlining their applications to allow customers to shop online for everything from groceries to apparel and electronics.

Now, the retail giant is experimenting with a self-checkout-only model, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and if it proves to be successful, the new system will be applied in all its locations.

There is only one reason for this strategy- cost savings, and almost all store across the country offer their customers to choose between the traditional cashier model or self-checkout machines.

Yet, Walmart now takes things even further.

According to the retailer, in an attempt to speed up the checkout process, the store won’t have cashiers, but self-checkout hosts at the front, whose role will be to help customers and even check their groceries if they prefer it.

Walmart spokesperson Kory Lundberg explained:

“In our Fayetteville store, we’re redesigning what that front-end checkout looks like, so it will look a little bit different to customers. However, customers will continue to have all of the same options they’ve always had when it comes to checking out, whether they want to check out with an associate scanning their items and bagging their groceries, or if they want to use a self-checkout.

What we are looking at in this new setup is … how can we move people through a checkout experience quicker at a Walmart? How can we shorten the lines, how can we move people through and get them onto the rest of their day as quickly as possible?”

The company plans to put the same setup in place in all its stores in case things go well.

They explained that the timing will depend on several factors, such as the input from employees and customers, as they want the process to be easy for them all.

Those who support the idea of self-checkout machines claim that they provide them with the privacy and autonomy they need during shopping.

Yet, many people oppose this idea, seeing it all simply, as “unpaid work”.

Craig Lambert, author of Shadow Work: The Unpaid, Unseen Jobs That Fill Your Day, claims that nowadays, we ended up doing a lot of work that was once done by someone else:

“You may choose to do it — some people think it saves them time, gets them out of the gas station quicker. But there is a price to be paid.”

Moreover, many customers explain that they find these machines hard to use. Others worry that many cashiers will be put out of work. Therefore, we won’t lose all cashiers, at least not yet. Many customers prefer them, and many retailers are not willing to lose their customers due to it.

When it comes to America’s largest retailer, we can wait and see what happens in Arkansas. In case the experiment goes well, customers won’t use a cashier on their counters.

However, back in 2018, Walmart had a similar unsuccessful trial, so it ended its Scan & Go program, which allowed customers to pay for items as they browsed the store and skip the checkout line.

Sources:
www.today.com
www.grocerydive.com
www.foxbusiness.com