ABOUT VIDEO POKER HISTORY - Page 3
In 1896 Fey had opened a factory at 406 Market Street,
a location he proudly referred to as "the best-equipped
shop west of the Mississippi." Included in the lines he
created here were the wheel machines, capable of a cash
payout, and the prevalent card machines. Two of these
50-card poker machines were the 6 Way Paying Teller, using
5 rows of drop cards, and a companion model called The
Duke, which had the cards mounted on 5 reels. While the
ultimate poker machine would be one capable of paying
awards automatically, this was not mechanically feasible
with five-reel machines. The Superior Court decision in
December 1897 decreeing slot machines to be legal devices,
opened the door for a cash paying poker machine. The
following year Fey introduced the three-reel Card Bell.
This was the first "bell" machine, a term which for many
years was the common trade parlance for the three-reel
slot machines used in casinos today.
The most difficult transitions from a five-reel poker
machine to an automatic check-paying card machine was
finding a method to read the reel symbols, creating the
capability to accept both nickels and trade checks then
separating them so that the former are diverted to the
cash can and the tokens to the payout slide assembly. The
automatic payouts on the Card Bell ranged from 2 to 20
coins, the highest being paid when the player was able to
line up a simulated Royal Flush, Ace, King, and Queen in
one suit. It is not known how many of these Card Bell's
were manufactured, but the only surviving machine (bearing
serial number 5), which Charlie Fey rescued from the 1906
earthquake and fire, is today enshrined in his grandsons
Liberty Belle Saloon and Restaurant in Reno, Nevada.
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