Humans have been utterly fascinated with the concept of gambling for many thousands years, and there’s even recent archaeological evidence to suggest that people as far back as 2000 BC China were engaging in some kind of rudimentary gambling game – click to view. Funnily enough though, the first genuine casino to be created was only established in the 1700s – would have through it would have been much earlier than that, wouldn’t you?
Something that is even more surprising in the current context is the fact that slot machines have only been a member of the gambling world for the last century or so, and online slots only the last couple of decades! Slot gambling is so outrageously popular in the 21st century that it beats all the other casino table games put together for gambling revenue, but they’ve only been around for a fraction of the time. One of the great dilemmas is online slots vs. offline slots, read on to find out who will be the ultimate victor!
An overview of offline slots
When we say offline slots we mean physical slot machines that exist in real life, and these have been existence since the late 19th century, first in very simple forms, and then in something more like the slots of today, with Charles D. Fey’s iconic Liberty Bell machine. This was the first genuinely successful slot machine, however at the time it was still illegal, so offline slot machines would have to wait slightly longer to become so popular.
It is very simple to play offline slots, all you have to do is insert coins or notes to make a wager, and then pull the lever or press the button to spin those reels! You might well encounter some exciting bonus features on the way, especially if you happen to be playing a modern offline video slot.
An overview of online slots
Online slots were only made possible with the invention of video slots back in the 1980s, something that ushered in the age of the RNG, or Random Number Generator. The first online slot is generally accepted to be Temple of Isis by the popular Australian developer Eyecon, however this game was met with a quick succession of other slots from the likes of NetEnt and Microgaming.
Nowadays online slots come in various different shapes and sizes, from faithful adaptations of the old school slot machines of yonder, all the way through to incredibly complex modern slots with new technology such as cluster pay mechanisms and the Megways game mechanic.
Who wins: Online slots vs. offline slots?
In many ways the battle between online slots and offline slots ultimately comes down to personal opinion, and this is mainly decided by how far you live away from a casino if anything.
One thing that you cannot avoid about online slots is that they will never give you quite the same experience as sitting at an offline slot in a busy casino slots hall, however some people may prefer this anyway!
