A fruit machine in a pub, a pokie in a Sydney club and a slot on a Las Vegas floor all go by different names, but the reels are the same. What changes, year after year, is everything built around them.
Across time and place, slot machines all have a different name: fruit machines in the UK, pokies in Australia, and the well-known slots everywhere else. Yet all can be traced back to a single ancestry. Over its history, the pursuit has gone from a passive reel-spinning experience to one of interactive engagement. New structural characteristics, such as symbols, bonuses, and innovative mechanics, have been added. These pieces are not changed without due care and thought, to manipulate player psychology, cushion the blow of losses, and build anticipation.
The Original Structures and Their Development
The evolution of pokies is also reflected in how modern games are presented to players. Beyond traditional reels, developers now offer features such as free spins, multipliers and locked respins. When exploring a Vegastars bonus, players may also encounter free-spin offers tied to particular games. Understanding the underlying mechanics is useful because promotional benefits and a game’s normal features are two different things.
In the beginning, there were poker machines. These mechanical devices would show cards on their reels, occasionally giving poker hands. Those who landed one could claim a prize from the saloon owner or bartender. Charles Fey took it one step further with his Liberty Bell machine. This replaced cards with new symbols, and when a payline was formed, the machine would dispense cash.
When gambling was banned in the United States, manufacturers had to adapt quickly. Herbert Mills was one of the first people to create devices that gave out flavoured gum and candy instead. ‘Fruit’ machines became the first time new structures were added to devices. These came in the form of nudges, which allowed a player to bump a reel downward, along with a hold, which could lock one in place.
These were vital, as they gave players the illusion of control. Even though the outcome was defined by the gears and springs in the machine, people now believed that elements of skill were involved. This active participation would stand the genre in good stead in the future.
Embracing Modern Mechanics
The data below is taken from the American Gaming Association’s Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker. It shows revenue for July 2026 across the whole of the industry. iGaming Gross Gambling Revenue stands out, second only to sports betting, and a large proportion of this is down to slots.
| Gross Gambling Revenue | Total | Growth |
| Total | $6.76 billion | +8.6% |
| Traditional Casino | $4.48 billion | +3.1% |
| Sports Betting | $1.27 billion | +27% |
| iGaming GGR | $1.01 billion | +15.7% |
This growth has been pushed on by new and innovative structural changes. While there are too many to list, and they are often used with different terms in conjunction with others, behind them all are the concepts of spinning reels.
One of the most popular at the moment is the Hold-and-Win mechanism. Also known as the Link-and-Win, depending on the developer, it usually kicks in when a specific number of symbols, usually scatters, appear on a playfield. Players then get to a new grid where symbols lock in place and respins are granted. When a symbol lands, it locks, and everything reverts back to the free spins counter.
Other popular mechanics include the patented Megaways systems. Originally conceived by Big Time Gaming, it can now be found on games by many developers. It is popular because it changes the number of symbols on a reel with each spin. When combined with other mechanics, it can create over 100,000 ways to win in a single game. This is astounding when most slots have between 10 and 20 paylines.
Modern online casino libraries often organise pokies by provider, theme or game category, making different mechanics easier to compare. Hold-and-Win games, for example, may use different grid sizes, symbol values and jackpot structures, while Megaways titles focus on changing reel configurations, which makes it easy to compare how different developers handle the same idea. A respin round at one studio might lock symbols on a 3×5 grid, while another uses a bigger board with a jackpot ladder. Playing a few side by side shows how far the structure can stretch.
Why Developers Add New Structures to Fan Favourites
New casino games arrive on a monthly basis. Some of them use these new structures to revamp a fan favourite. Take the ‘Gates of Olympus’ series by Pragmatic Play. In 2026, it got a new installment which expanded on the original formula. This added multiplier symbols of up to 2,500x and a bonus wheel alongside the pre-existing tumbling reels, scatters and free spins.
Sharon McHugh is the Director of Public Relations at Pragmatic Play. She noted that “Gates of Olympus isn’t just one of the most recognisable titles in our portfolio; it’s one of the biggest game series the industry has ever seen. So, we wanted to give the franchise a suitably powerful injection with Gates of Olympus 2500. With four distinct bonus modes and enriched multiplier mechanics, the prestigious title offers plenty of variety while retaining the core gameplay that made the original such a firm favourite.”
Retaining this core structure is vital for developers. By doing so, it allows them to keep some familiarity, providing a benchmark for what has changed in a series.
Slotting Into a Wider Content Strategy
Pragmatic Play develops as many as eight new titles a month. The aforementioned Gates of Olympus was part of the wider roadmap, which they opened up in their Q4 roadmap. Their titles for the end of the year are listed below:
- Gates of Olympus 2500 – 28 September 2026
- Sweet Bonanza POP – 20 October 2026
- Zeus vs Hades POP – 17 November 2026
- Sugar Megarush – 30 November 2026
- Starlight Princess POP – 1 December 2026
- Sweet Bonanza Xmas 2500 – 3 December 2026
It is no coincidence that almost all these titles are sequels, remakes or new editions. Alongside this sits an array of crash/arcade style titles and live casino games. Once again, updating these franchises, in whatever vertical, combines a recognised format, giving a reason to revisit.
The Psychology Behind the Structure
New structures must constantly be added to games for retention. The sector is one that can easily foster ‘feature’ fatigue. This is when players become tired of mechanics, as they become predictable or overused. This results in a fall in excitement.
Features like Hold and Win are designed to build what is termed a cliff-edge excitement model. It is a series of near misses, created to build adrenaline spikes as symbols land one by one, and players wait for the next piece to fall into place. Resets and tumbling reels can help reset this anticipation.
The packaging keeps changing, from nudge buttons to locked respins, but the job is the same as it was on the old gum machines: make a game decided by maths feel like one the player has a say in. Each new structure is just another way of doing that.
Responsible Gambling – Gambling should only ever be performed by those who are 18+. It is not a way to make money, and should only ever be used as a form of entertainment. If you believe gambling is becoming an issue, then get assistance and use the tools provided by your operator, like deposit limits and self-exclusion.
