Poker, the famous game of cards and deceit, has become such a recognizable pastime that it has forever been solidified into modern popular culture. While the game itself is quite old and dates back over a century, its modern variation as video poker is fairly new, but has taken the world by storm in its short lifespan.

Today, there are thousands of online casinos all over t he world that offer their own take on video poker, ranging from as basic as possible to complex multiplayer tournaments played by people from all over the planet. As the game continues to grow and become bigger by the day, some would be interested to learn that the history of video poker itself is quite interesting and closely related to modern slot machines.

Where It Started

Poker is arguably the oldest card game that modern casinos offer, dating back to the early 1800s within the United States. The game would most often be played at bars or in private homes, and while gambling laws have changed drastically over the last two hundred years, poker has continued to persist.

The first recorded poker machine was invented by the company Sittman and Pitt, and made its début in 1891. While extremely basic, the machine was a marvel for the time, and used a simple drum system to manage the cards and the coins.

Seven years later, the famous Charles Fey created the very first slot machine, which was based off of poker. The machine, known as the Card Bell, was fully automated, and could even pay out to customers that had a successful spin with online slots.

Poker machines continued to evolve for the next century, with more features like the draw being added, and before long most land-based casinos had a full assortment of different machines.

Early Electronic Video Poker

Almost 100 years later as the world was beginning to make use of primitive electronic computers, Dale Electronics created the very first video poker machine that made use of modern computing methods. These machines had circuit boards and could be programmed with special random number algorithms. These machines were quickly distributed and installed in every major casino around the United States, but were initially not a huge hit as everyone had predicted.

It wouldn’t be until a decade later in 1981 that video poker became a classic, and one of the most popular games at the casinos. This trend would remain until the game was ported over to the online world.

Modern Video Poker

With the expansion of the Internet and the growth of the online casino industry, video poker found unprecedented success. People from all over the world could log on and play video poker without having to leave their own homes. It was a monumental success, and like slots, continues to be one of the most popular pastimes of the modern world.

A few years later, and mobile casino platforms ported video poker over to tablets and smart phones, giving us the modern version of the game that we all know today.