History of Video Poker

Casino Edge's history of video poker, one of the most popular casino games.

The first video poker machines started to surface in the 1970s. Although very limited, they offered the single-player solitude of the slot machines combined with the ability to use skill to reduce the house edge. This made the game very appealing to a large portion of players who would have otherwise had a less enjoyable time playing slots.

The first sighting of a video poker machine was in 1970, when Dale Electronics produced Poker-Matic, which was released on the Las Vegas strip only to be wildly unpopular.

In 1979, International Game Technology (then known as SIRCOMA) launched Draw Poker, which was a massive hit. The ‘80s saw huge advances being made in electronics, yet the average household did not own a computer. However, people were beginning to become increasingly obsessed with technology. This obsession made video poker extremely exciting to newcomers to casinos. The very same consoles would appear to people of the next century as archaic, but for the people of the '80s, they would seem extremely high tech and have an air of luxury about them.

The game became very popular in Vegas casinos because of its great odds and low playing costs (taking low coin denominations). However, these machines are becoming increasingly limited, with many casinos cutting their pay tables and only accepting coin denominations of 25 cents or more.

It wasn't until 1994 and the introduction of the World Wide Web that video poker made the transition to the Internet. Land-based casino games were now available to play from the comfort of the home, helping video poker to quickly grow into one of the most popular games there is.