Internet Video Poker History

The video poker history is much like the slots history because in fact the machines for playing slots and video poker were invented almost at the same time when the regular poker and blackjack variant had been already very popular. The original slot machine with poker game was developed in 1891 in that machine 50 cards were used within five drums. In those games two cards were usually removed in order to better the house edge. The gamblers at the first slot machines were given drinks and cigars as the prizes. Soon in 1899 Liberty bell machine was introduced by Charles Frey who changed the cards with different pictures for example hearts, bells and spades. The name of the slot was constituted by the use of Liberty bell symbol on the rotating drums along with the other pictures. That new slot game was simpler because now the gambler had to hit the set number of the same symbols rather than difficult poker card hands. Since that time poker was played against other players in the ordinary casino halls. This situation changed a lot in 1899 as video poker game was introduced. Poker-Matic poker machine made by Dale Electronics is regarded as the forerunner of all video poker machines. The premiere video poker machines were played in Las Vegas casinos but at first they were not popular since they didn’t provide a big win. Due to the up-to-date technologies a new variation of poker machines was invented in 1975 and again they got to be not very popular since the gamblers couldn’t trust the devices the principle of which they were not able to figure out. We may underline the turning point in video poker development after the company IGT introduced Draw poker game in 1979. This type of poker game at last became popular as now not rotating drums were used. At the same time the fame of slot games increases too and reaches it pick in the 1980's when most gamblers rushed to the slots and video poker machines which seemed to be less intimidating compared with the table games. As each year new and new technologies were developed in computer industry they were successfully used in poker machines and contributed to their popularity. Those days new types of video poker were created to satisfy the demands and caprices of all gamblers. After the opening of Internet to the mass usage video poker gained the popularity as lots of players over the planet could play the game at the selected sites with card games and selected slots sites. The high speed Internet and the development of good online software in 1994 confirmed the position of Internet video poker games in the gambling world. Nowadays it is played by gamblers from different countries as the simplest game to understand and play online.