Slot machine manufacturers
The companies that built the slot and fruit machines in pubs, arcades and casinos, from Mills Novelty and Bally to Barcrest, JPM and Novomatic.
By the Slot Machines team. Last checked .
Slot machine manufacturers: who builds the machines you play
Slot machine manufacturers are the companies that design and build physical gaming machines: the cabinets, reels or screens, coin and note handling, and the software inside. This hub covers the makers that shaped the industry and the ones behind the machines in British pubs, arcades, betting shops and casinos, from 19th-century American pioneers to the companies building today’s Category B and C machines. Online-only studios have their own online slot providers hub.
The story moves between two worlds. In the United States, makers such as Mills Novelty, Bally and IGT built the casino slot machine, from the Liberty Bell era through electromechanical hoppers to video reels and progressive jackpots. In Britain, a separate industry grew up around pub and arcade fruit machines, with companies such as Bell-Fruit, JPM, Barcrest and Electrocoin adding holds, nudges and feature boards that American casino slots never used. Many of those British names have since been bought, merged or closed.
Why does the maker matter to a player? Mostly as context. The manufacturer sets how a machine looks and plays, but in Great Britain the law sets its maximum stake and prize, and an independent test house checks the higher-category machines before they reach a venue. A famous badge on the cabinet tells you about its design heritage, not about your chances.
How to use the slot machine manufacturers pages below
Each card below opens a profile covering the company’s origins, its best-known machines, who owns it now and why it matters in the UK. Where sources disagree about a date, as they do over when Bally’s Money Honey appeared, the profile gives both accounts. Read the profiles alongside our history hub, which tells the same story by decade rather than by company.
| Maker | Origins | Known for | Status today |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mills Novelty | Chicago, 1890s | Mills Owl (1897), Mills Liberty Bell (1907) | Defunct |
| Bally | Chicago, 1932 | Money Honey, the electromechanical hopper slot | Brand within Light & Wonder |
| Williams / WMS | Chicago, 1943 | Pinball, then Reel ’Em In (1996) | Brand within Light & Wonder |
| Aristocrat | Sydney, 1953 | Lightning Link | Listed on the ASX |
| Bell-Fruit | Nottingham, early 1960s | UK pub fruit machines | Part of Inspired since 2019 |
| Electrocoin | Cardiff, 1976 | Bar-X, in UK arcades by 1983 | Holds Commission accounts |
| JPM | UK | Fruit machines; Monopoly quiz machine (1994) | Original company’s fate unconfirmed |
| Reflex Gaming | UK, 2004 | Club machines such as Fortune £500 | Owned by Dransfield Novelty since 2019 |
Manufacturers A–Z
How the British fruit machine industry changed hands
In 1987 a Nottingham local history article described JPM as the UK fruit machine market leader, with Bell-Fruit and Barcrest sharing second place. Over the following decades almost every one of those firms passed to a larger international group.
| Year | Change |
|---|---|
| 1998 | IGT bought Barcrest; Barcrest was later sold to Scientific Games, now Light & Wonder |
| 2013 | WMS merged into Scientific Games |
| 2015 | GTECH completed its purchase of IGT on 7 April 2015 |
| 2019 | Dransfield Novelty of Leeds bought Reflex Gaming’s parent company in June |
| 2019 | Inspired agreed on 11 June to buy Novomatic UK’s Gaming Technology Group, including Bell-Fruit and Astra Games |
The Inspired announcement (opens in a new tab) lists the businesses involved, and the Museum of the Game’s Bell-Fruit archive (opens in a new tab) catalogues many of the company’s machines. Several makers also became online studios: Barcrest is best known today for Rainbow Riches, and Inspired supplies both betting-shop terminals and online games. Our page on who makes UK fruit machines covers today’s market.
Consolidation changed what British venues get. Larger groups brought shared cabinets and server-based systems that can run several games on one machine, while some of the smaller specialist makers that once built a machine for each pub chain disappeared. The feature boards, holds and nudges that define the British fruit machine survived the changes, and many now appear in online versions too.
What recent UK rules mean for slot machine manufacturers
Machine makers are entering the biggest round of technical change in years. The Gambling Commission ran a consultation on gaming machine standards from 29 January to 3 June 2025, and several decisions followed.
- 22 July 2025: larger machine allowances for casinos began, with up to 80 machines possible in qualifying converted casinos, widening demand for casino cabinets.
- 29 July 2026: a new licence condition lets the Commission require venues to take out named machines that fail its standards.
- 30 September 2026: the final version of the gaming machine technical standards (opens in a new tab) appeared.
- 30 March 2027: a stop-gap standard setting out what counts as a session applies.
- 30 June 2027: the finalised standards take effect. Trade reports say new Category B machines must offer player limit-setting and show elapsed time and net position, and new machines must not celebrate returns at or below the stake; existing machines are reported to be exempt.
Two other policies remained unimplemented on 21 October 2026: direct debit card play on machines, announced in May 2024, and letting arcades and bingo halls run two Category B machines for every lower-category one. Our page on gaming machine technical standards tracks each step.
For makers, the practical effect is a new generation of cabinets and software. On the reported details, machines built for the 2027 standards will need limit-setting screens, time displays and new rules on how wins are presented, much as online slots changed after October 2021. Venues are expected to replace older machines gradually rather than all at once, so players are likely to see both kinds side by side for some time.
Testing, approval and what a maker cannot change
Category B1, B2, B3 and B3A machines must be tested by an independent test house before use, and manufacturers of machines and machine software must use a Commission-approved one. The Commission’s approved list (opens in a new tab) as of 2 March 2026 named 14 test houses, eight of them approved for gaming machines. A maker can choose a machine’s theme, features and target return, but not its maximum stake or prize, which the law fixes by category.
Testing covers more than randomness. Test houses check that a machine’s game features, display notices and meters match the technical standards for its category, and that the return it is set to pay matches what it displays. The Commission reviews test reports and audits but does not run its own game testing, and the licensee chooses and pays the test house. That is why the list of approved test houses matters: it is the Commission’s main control over who signs off a machine.
- Find the category on the machine or its label.
- Check the stake, prize and target return shown against the limits for that category.
- Look for the maker’s name, usually on the cabinet or the opening screen.
- Read the maker’s profile here for its history, and our explainer on how machines are tested for the checks behind it.
Using maker profiles to choose or collect
For players, the maker matters less than the category, but profiles help explain why machines from the same company feel alike, such as the nudge-heavy feature boards of British fruit machines. For collectors, the maker and date are everything. Owning a vintage machine is legal in some circumstances and not others, and our guide to collecting vintage slot machines explains what to check before buying. To see where each category of machine is sited today, use our where to find slot machines hub.
Older machines are also part of the record. Museum collections and archives keep catalogues of British and American machines by maker and year, and our slot machine museums page lists places where historic cabinets can be seen. Seeing a 1960s electromechanical machine next to a modern touch-screen cabinet shows how much the technology changed while the basic idea stayed the same.
Frequently asked questions
Who makes fruit machines in the UK?
Several companies have built British fruit machines, and many changed hands over the years. Bell-Fruit began in Nottingham in the early 1960s and has been part of Inspired since 2019. Barcrest, from the Manchester area, is now owned by Light & Wonder. Electrocoin, based in Cardiff, created Bar-X in the early 1980s. Reflex Gaming, founded in 2004, has been owned by Dransfield Novelty since 2019. Blueprint, part of the Merkur Group, has also supplied reel-based machines. Our page on who makes UK fruit machines covers each.
What was the first slot machine manufacturer?
Credit usually goes to the San Francisco mechanic Charles Fey, whose Liberty Bell is widely described as the first modern slot machine, though the exact year is disputed. Before that, Sittman and Pitt of Brooklyn, New York, built a poker-card machine in the early 1890s that paid nothing itself: any prize, such as a free drink or cigars, was handed over by the bar. Mills Novelty of Chicago then made its own Liberty Bell in 1907 and turned slot machines into a mass-produced product. Our Charles Fey page sets out the competing dates.
Who made the Money Honey slot machine?
Bally made Money Honey, usually described as the electromechanical slot machine whose hopper could pay out large numbers of coins automatically. Sources disagree on whether it appeared in 1963 or 1964, and on how large its hopper really was, so our profile gives both accounts. The machine helped shift casino floors away from purely mechanical slots and made bigger automatic payouts possible. Bally later became Bally Technologies and is now a brand within Light & Wonder. Our page on electromechanical slot machines explains how it worked.
Who invented Bar-X?
Electrocoin, a Cardiff company founded in 1976, created Bar-X in 1981, working from a concept first called OXO. Production began in 1982 in partnership with the Japanese company now called Universal Entertainment, and the machine was in UK arcades by 1983. More than 20,000 had been sold by early 1993, making it one of the best-known British fruit machines. A Bar-X Deluxe app followed in 2016. Our Electrocoin profile has the full history.
Are slot machine manufacturers regulated in the UK?
Yes. Companies that make, supply or repair gaming machines for use in Great Britain need a gaming machine technical licence from the Gambling Commission, and the higher-category machines must pass independent testing before use. Makers must follow the Commission’s gaming machine technical standards, which cover game features, display notices and metering. Machines must display a target return, and from 29 July 2026 venues must remove specified non-compliant machines once notified. The stake and prize limits themselves are set by law, so a manufacturer cannot raise them.
Do manufacturers decide how much a machine pays out?
They design the target return, but within rules. In Great Britain, machines in Categories B and C must display a theoretical target return to player, and Category D machines must too unless they are crane grabs or penny falls. No legal minimum percentage is set. Some fruit machines are compensated, adjusting payouts over time to move towards the target, and must say so. The venue may be able to choose between settings the maker offers. Our page on compensated machines explains how that works.
Which slot machine manufacturers make online games too?
Several. IGT, Novomatic and Light & Wonder all have digital arms, and Novomatic’s online studio Greentube is known for Book of Ra Deluxe. Barcrest, now part of Light & Wonder, is behind the Rainbow Riches series, which began in 2006. Inspired supplies betting-shop terminals and online games, and Blueprint makes both. Online versions in Great Britain follow different rules from the cabinets, including a £5 stake limit for players aged 25 and over, so the same game can behave differently online and in a venue.
What happened to JPM?
JPM was the UK fruit machine market leader in 1987, according to a Nottingham local history article from that year, and in 1994 its Monopoly machine became the first 50p-play quiz machine and the first to use a touch screen. Beyond that, reliable sources on the original company’s founding, ownership and closure are thin, so our profile sticks to what can be confirmed. A company called JPM Interactive Limited appears on the Gambling Commission register, but its link to the original JPM International has not been confirmed.