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The Accidental History of Fruit Symbols
Tue Jul 21, 2026
Most people never question why slot machines are covered in fruit.
Cherries, lemons, oranges and the occasional golden bell have become so familiar that they almost feel like part of gambling’s DNA. Scroll through a collection of classic games on Spilaviti and you’ll still find them everywhere, even though today’s slots can feature anything from Norse mythology to outer space.
The funny part is that these symbols weren’t chosen because they looked lucky. They survived because of a legal workaround that nobody expected to last.
A Slot Machine That Didn’t Need Fruit
When Charles Fey built the Liberty Bell machine in San Francisco during the late 1800s, there wasn’t a single cherry in sight.
Its reels displayed horseshoes, stars, card suits and, of course, the cracked Liberty Bell that gave the machine its name. Landing three bells delivered the biggest prize, and the symbol quickly became associated with hitting the jackpot.
Those early machines were simple by necessity. Every extra symbol meant more complicated mechanics, so designs stayed bold and easy to recognize. Even now, plenty of retro-inspired games offered alongside modern casino bonus deals borrow that same stripped-back look.
The Gum Trick That Changed Everything
Fruit appeared for a reason that had little to do with gambling.
As anti-gambling laws tightened across parts of the United States in the early 1900s, some manufacturers looked for a loophole. Instead of paying out coins, machines rewarded players with sticks of chewing gum.
The pictures on the reels simply matched the flavour inside.
Cherry gum? Show a cherry. Lemon gum? Add a lemon. Orange, plum and watermelon followed for exactly the same reason. Nobody was trying to create iconic casino branding. They were just telling players what prize they had won.
Yet those colourful drawings proved surprisingly memorable. When cash payouts eventually returned, the fruit stayed.
Why Cherries Refused to Disappear
Not every fruit became equally famous.
Cherries stood out because they were often linked to smaller, more frequent payouts. Players didn’t always need three of them to win something, which made the machines feel lively even when jackpots were rare.
There’s also a practical reason. Bright red cherries were easy to spot on spinning mechanical reels, especially compared with darker symbols that blurred together.
Modern developers still lean into that nostalgia. Even players browsing free spins promotions regularly stumble across fruit-themed releases that deliberately echo machines built more than a hundred years ago.
The Bell Outlasted Every Trend
The bell took a different path.
Unlike the fruit, it wasn’t borrowed from chewing gum packaging or advertising. It came directly from Charles Fey’s original design and gradually became shorthand for big wins.
That symbolism survived every technological leap. Mechanical machines disappeared. Video slots arrived. Mobile gaming exploded. Even casinos embracing cryptocurrency through crypto casino platforms still feature bells in their catalogue because players immediately understand what they represent.
Very few pieces of game design have lasted that long.
The next time cherries line up across the reels, it’s worth remembering they weren’t created by a marketing department or a casino executive chasing a trend. They began life as labels for chewing gum, survived changing laws, and quietly became one of the most recognisable symbols in gambling history. That’s not just clever branding—it was a complete accident, and more than a century later, the industry is still spinning the same story.
