Charles Fey: ‘‘The Father’ of the pokies!

Australia first had poker machines a hundred years ago. They were declared illegal in 1921, 1930 and 1940s – but still existed. The trouble, though, this period spans the problem of addicted gamblers.
 

The next time you’re at the club, pub or casino playing the poker machines, spare a thought for one Charles August Fey. He made it all happen.

Nearly 127 years ago, on April 14, 1897, the clumping sounds that would eventually reverberate around the world – Europe, Africa, South America, Asia, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Caribbean and, of course, the Unites States – were first heard in a modest little machine shop in downtown San Francisco.

For it was in this humble abode that a group of hard-nosed saloon and restaurant owners watched avidly as an unassuming 29-year-old mechanic, Charles Fey, unveiled and explained his latest invention.

The new-fangled device, the outer case, of which was built from heavy metal and reinforced by a riveted brass frame, was the world’s first poker machine – the Liberty Bell.
 

Main: This political cartoon appeared in the San Franciso News in 1940. It shows Fey’s first Liberty Bell ready for action.  

 

S P E C I A L   F E A T U R E

Liberty Bell … ready for action.
 

FeFey’s “wonder machine”, although smaller than the present-day models, was not only a breakthrough in automation but it was destined to influence the design of poker machines for the next 100 years or more.

Fey could scarcely have imagined into what an enormous global revenue-raiser his idea would grow. John Scarne, author of Complete Guide to Gambling, says, “there has never been any other gambling device which has produced such enormous profits with so little effort on the part of the operator.”

The inventor’s grandson, Marshall Fey, claims the Liberty Bell “grew so popular … that an entire industry evolved from this single invention and within 30 years more than a million of these machines were operating throughout the (sic) world.”

Says Scarne: “His (Fey’s) machines were an immediate success, and he couldn’t manufacture enough of them to supply the demand in and around San Francisco. Gambling equipment manufacturers tried to secure manufacturing and distribution rights, but Fey refused all offers.”

But back to Fey’s cluttered workshop: The demonstration went off without a hitch. 

Not surprisingly, this history-making event didn’t go unheralded. “Most of those present agreed the machine should be a great success,” reported the San Francisco Chronicle the next day, in what could be one of the classic understatements of all time.
 

Charles Fey.
 

The newspaper went on to explain that Fey’s device “is operated by depositing a Nickle in a slot to release the handle. When the right combination of symbols stop in the window the player is awarded coins ranging from two to 20.”

“The inventor of this profitable contrivance – Charles Fey – must have known as much about human nature as he did about machinery,” opined Alan Wykes in his Guide to Gambling.

The Liberty Bell has been described by several experts as “the great granddaddy of the modern poker machines.” The noted historian, David Christensen, says “the Liberty Bell was a unique machine, and was manufactured with hardly any changes for almost 10 years.”  

In 1929, the pioneering Fey Manufacturing Company introduced the first Silver Dollar machine which, according to Christensen, “exemplified the finest example of classic design.”

<< Adapted from the book, A Player’s Guide to Poker Machines by Frank Morris; 1993.
 

Poker Machines: No, No, No!