You probably think about slot machines as their newest iteration: neon-lit, algorithm-driven and highly entertaining. At first, though, they were clunky mechanical curiosities, attracting attention through a nice combination of colorful images and just the right amount of luck. But then came prohibition. Not the 1920 alcohol ban—though that would follow—but the earlier wave of anti-gambling laws that swept across many U.S. states.
Manufacturers needed a new narrative for their machines, a rebranding of sorts to turn vice into virtue. Instead of paying out coins, the machines were converted into vending devices for chewing gum. The reels were redesigned with fruit symbols to reflect the flavors on offer. Align three cherries, and you’d win a cherry-flavored gum. Line up three plums, lemons, or oranges, and you’d get the corresponding treat. And just like that, the cherry entered gambling iconography—not as a symbol of decadence, but as a loophole.
The Cherry: From Confectionery to Cultural Icon
The cherry wasn’t chosen for mysticism or mythology. It was simple, recognizable, and matched a popular gum flavor. But over time, it evolved into something more: a visual shorthand for “win.” Even today, in real money online casinos, which you can find reviewed on oddschecker, the cherry symbol evokes the idea of victory, of a prize that we eagerly await as the slot spins relentlessly.
What’s remarkable is that the cherry survived every technological leap that followed: the electromechanical era of the 1960s, the video slots of the 1980s, the online gambling boom of the 2000s, and now the immersive world of VR gaming. Through each reinvention, the cherry remained. It’s branding genius by accident.
The Bar Symbol: Not a Gold Ingot After All
If the cherry tells the story of adaptation, the BAR symbol tells the story of corporate endurance. Many players assume the BAR icon represents a gold ingot—a nod to riches, treasure, instant wealth. It certainly looks the part: a bold, rectangular block that feels solid and valuable. But that interpretation is retrofitted fantasy. In reality, the BAR symbol was the rectangular logo of the Bell-Fruit Gum Company (often referred to as Bell-Gum), one of the early manufacturers that pivoted slot machines into gum dispensers. When a player aligned three BAR symbols, they weren’t striking gold—they were winning a bar of chewing gum. The icon literally represented the product.
Over a century later, the logo survives. Stripped of its commercial origin, it now floats freely in the gambling subconscious, detached from gum and reattached to wealth. It’s one of the longest-lasting pieces of accidental branding in entertainment history. The irony? A corporate logo designed to sell candy outlived the company’s confectionery ambitions and became a permanent fixture of global gaming culture.
Mechanical Roots in a Digital Age
Today, slot machines have little in common with their mechanical ancestors. Algorithms have replaced springs and levers. Reels spin on high-resolution screens. We step into virtual reality casinos where the environment responds to our movements, our voices, even our gestures.
And yet, the fruit remains. Cherries, lemons, plums. The BAR symbol. Sometimes even the number seven, which later became associated with luck and jackpots. These images persist like fossils embedded in silicon.
They are the umbilical cord connecting modern digital gambling to its mechanical infancy. In an era of VR slots and immersive online casinos, the fruit symbols serve as cultural memory—reminders that today’s billion-dollar industry once survived by pretending to be a gum machine. The cherry represents more than a pop cultural phenomenon. It is a relic of the history of slot machines itself, a symbol of resilience and the enduring search for fun and rebellion in simple games.
