[ English ]

Video Poker is merely a mixture of two common forms of betting: the video slot using the poker game. Succeeding at a game of Video-Poker involves a mixture of player talent with genuine luck, making it a favorite with gamblers. The game of poker is thought to have originated back in 1830, where it’s recorded as having been enjoyed by French immigrants living in New Orleans. Video Poker uses a version of the game known as five-card draw poker. At the same time, the coin-operated card unit (better-known affectionately as a "slot") was originally created in the late 1800’s, with poker machines showing up in San Francisco in Eighteen Ninety. These machines were really simple by today’s standards, using real cards instead of symbols.

The machines dropped in popularity throughout the first half of the 1900’s. Economic difficulties mixed with the limited technology of the machines themselves meant that folks just weren’t interested in wagering anymore. A extremely primitive digital poker machine was released in 1964 but achieved only reasonable results.

It wasn’t until the mid-1970s that the Electronic Poker unit as we know it today became accessible. Advances in technologies meant that a central processing unit (CPU) could be used inside the machines to give them a "brain", whilst a monitor transmitted the action to the player.

Meanwhile, casino operators searched for new high-profit games, and the combination of a slot machine games using the more traditional game of five-card draw poker proved to be a winning mixture in the old and new. The initial Video Poker device was built in 1976 by Bally Manufacturing. It was only black and white, but a color version was developed just 8 months later, by the Fortune Coin Firm. Over the next few years, computer chips started to be more affordable to mass produce, and additional gambling establishments introduced Electronic-Poker machines as they became much more financially viable. A version known as Draw Poker was launched in 1979 by a organization now called IGT, and it achieved amazing success.

Electronic-Poker actually took off within the early 80s where it started to be famous in gambling establishments across Sin City. Gamblers found themselves far less intimidated by a machine than they were when sitting down at a table in front of others. The reputation of the game has steadily improved over the last twenty-five years and it can now be discovered in the majority of gambling establishments throughout the world, as well as in bars and on the Net.