Gambling is easily one of the most beloved pastimes of the global populace. And poker is one of the more popular and glamorous forms of gambling.
If you are the sort who can’t do without video poker, do you know enough about it to fill a tome or a thimble? Whatever your answer might be, here’s a short history of the video poker genre from its beginning to the present.
In With The Old!
Words like Apple, Alienware or Cyberpower were then total unknowns in the America of the 1970’s. Personal computing was in its nascent stage, though a few academic and military computer networks were in existence from the early 1960’s. Despite the lack of computers by the greater majority of the American populace, that did not prevent gaming experts from seeking to develop a video poker game.
A programmer by the name of Si Redd soon had a patent on the first poker machine. He established SIRCOMA which later became the Draw International Game Technology in 1979 and released a poker game by the name of Draw Poker in that same year.
The Rocket-fast Ascent of Video Poker
The first poker games were built just like standard slot machines. These were emplaced in the casinos of Las Vegas and were immensely popular from the mid-1980’s onward, as they offered odds that were much cheaper and better than real poker.
Video Poker Comes Of Age
The establishment of online casinos has since enabled video poker to be easily played online and on a wide array of devices. It is currently among the most popular games anywhere anytime.
Video Poker is a marriage of convenience between poker and slot machines. While the etymology of the term ‘Poker” is still fiercely debated, what is not in doubt is that the earliest reference to it came from a Jonathan Green in 1834. The said Mr.Green documented the development of what became Poker on riverboats in the Mississippi.
By the 1800’s, there were coin-operated gaming machines undergoing development and production in the Eastern US. These were widely used in the saloons and cigar stores of the period and made use of fifty cards located on five drums, with the Ten of Spades and Jack of Hearts being usually removed from the deck.
During the early days of poker machines, it was a normal thing for a Royal Flush to get a payout of either drinks or 100 cigars. The renowned “Pure” of the industry was a certain Charles August Fey, who produced a slew of innovative machines.
1964 marks the advent of electronic games, with Nevada Electronics producing a solid state “21” machine during that period. Other companies soon joined in, with the International Game Technology evolving into one of the foremost and most innovative venture.
Along with video chips during the 1970’s came poker machines, with these soon finding a place in nearly every casino on the planet.