Video Poker Machines in Vegas

Before online video poker came along, there were the video poker machines.

Introduction to Video Poker Machines

You play video poker on video poker machines. That is how it has been ever since the first such machines and the game itself came into existence in the 1970s. The machines have obviously evolved over the years, but the game is still played on machines. At least that is how you play video poker at land-based casinos and other such physically accessible locations.

There is a lot to video poker machines – how they came about, the way they grew in popularity, and the way they are headed in the future. These are some of the things we will discuss in this article on video poker machines.

Video Poker Machines - The Early Days

Video poker itself was nowhere on the horizon less than half a century back. The first time the game actually came into the limelight – and even then it was not too popular – was in the middle of the 1970s. There was curiosity, of course, about the game, but nothing much otherwise. The introduction of Draw Poker in 1979 by SIRCOMA – an acronym for Si Redd’s Coin Machines – changed all that.

With the passage of time, the game has evolved to very high levels and so have the video poker machines. Today, video poker machines are advanced equipment that you get to see in casinos, poker rooms, and other such land-based gambling center. The types of machines have also increased with the passage of time and the increase in the number of video poker games available.

Video Poker Machines in the 1990s

The 1990s saw a strong surge in the popularity of video poker machines and the games they allowed you to play. The popularity of video poker increased primarily because of the simplicity that came to be associated with the video poker machines.

For many people who were not avid gambling enthusiasts, the casino could be a potentially uncomfortable experience, especially when it came to playing the table games. However, the video poker machine was a different story altogether. They could identify with the easy way the game could be played on the machines, and that was the best thing that could happen to video poker in terms of popularity.

During the 1990s, the video poker machines struck a note all across America. The games became increasingly popular, and soon you could find video poker machines set up in land-based casinos and poker rooms. In the gambling capital of the world, Las Vegas, video poker struck a huge winning streak. The machines caught the fancy of the gambling enthusiasts as also amateurs who visited Las Vegas.

Things reached a stage where there were video poker machines all over Las Vegas. No location was unusual enough when it came to setting up a video poker machine; such was the popularity of video poker at that time. People set up video poker machines not just in casinos, but also in drugstores, bars, and also gas stations. Those were the golden days of the video poker machines.

Even today, video poker machines are extremely popular, but with the advent of online gambling and, consequently, online video poker, they are beginning to lose some of their sheen among the enthusiasts.