Wheel of Fortune History

Merv Griffin, who is a successful casino owner, has a great fondness for gambling. Therefore it seems only natural that Wheel would be interested in him with regard to the slot machine. It was in the 1980s that International Gaming Technology licensed the rights to manufacture Wheel-based games.

The first machines are still their most popular. They feature the standard IGT traditional three-reel slot machines. Each of these contains a reproduction of the show's well-known wheel from above the reels. As soon as the "SPIN" symbol lines up on any of the reels, the player then pushes a button which starts the wheel spinning. At this point the player can win up to as many as 1,000 credits (without "Bankrupt" wedges). When the player lines up three "Wheel of Fortune" symbols he/she wins the progressive jackpot. This is usually linked to other Wheel machines spread throughout a particular state and aproaches up to millions of dollars.

More recently since the popularity of video-based slot machines with many paylines, there has been the appearance of video versions of Wheel machines, all of which have the familiar wheel from above the screen. Wide-area progressive jackpots are also featured on these machines. A version showing  Sajak and White was created in 2004, as a "Special Ediiton." It was the only machine in the series to contain human voices, accept for the usual show-opening audience chant.

The slot machines of Wheel are believed by many to be the slot machines that are most popular of those ever produced in North America. It is almost impossible in fact to enter any casino anywhere on that continent that in don't repeatedly hear the audience chant of  "WHEEL ... OF ... FORTUNE!" coming from a machine that occurs when a player is given the opportunity to spin the wheel.