Big Bertha

A slot machine of the middle-20th century which used an internal motor to power more reels and symbols per reel, increasing the potential size of the jackpot.

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Big Bertha slot machines eventually needed a 5-horsepower engine to power the reels. The 160 reel symbols allowed for a greater degree of randomness. The 3-reel of the era were often limited to 15 reel symbols, and therefore the maximum payoffs could not range out of the several hundreds. Casino owners wanted to offer larger jackpots, which they knew would bring in more customers.

Big Bertha was highly successful when it debuted. In fact, the machine was soon replaced by Super Big Bertha, an even grander deluxe slot machine. Super Big Bertha had 8 reels and 20 reel symbols per reel. This machine cost $150,000 to manufacture, which greatly limited its availability. Las Vegas casinos often featured Super Big Berthas, and the larger jackpots offered drew in slots gamblers.

The problem with the Big Bertha machines (besides the cost of buying one) was the odds of hitting a jackpot were astronomically high. The odds were estimated at one in over 15 billion spins, so even a million spins (or a billion) were unlikely to produce a jackpot winner.

The Super Big Bertha and other such large-reeled machines were made obsolete by the random number generator. The RNG is an internal computer which randomly selects numbers that correspond to a reel symbol alignment. When the number comes up, the RNG slot machine displays the corresponding reel symbols and pays out (if necessary). The random number generator meant that slot machines with high jackpots did not have to be huge, expensive monstrosities.

The RNG paved the way for the inclusion of progressive jackpots, which helped fuel the popularity of the most famous slot machines in the world, such as the Wheel of Fortune slot machine. Today, the Big Bertha slot machine has been relegated to a museum piece.

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