The buyer was one of the auction-house’s regulars, so I eased my way over to him, curious about why he bought this old metal monstrosity of a slot machine.
“I have three at home,” he said. A collection? No. He didn’t seem much interested in talking and then headed away from his purchase – a machine sporting a game called “Dynamite.”
The man walked right over to another guy and finished our conversation. “I bought the slot machine,” he said. “I got four now. That’s a real slot machine. I have the new ones.”
I guess talking toys is a man’s thing, a kind of bonding ritual that a woman just wouldn’t understand. This was a buyer whom I had had plenty of conversations with before, back in the box-lots room as we’d both bidded on items. I guess he just wanted to talk manly things – like the tough slot machine – with someone like himself.
I don’t doubt that these machines as collectibles might attract more men than women. Maybe it’s the husky nature of the beast, an opponent with as much fight to take what’s yours as you have to keep it. It’s a test of strength against strength – inanimate without conscience vs. animate with little willpower.
I suppose people buy slot machines for all kinds of reasons. I came across a forum on the web with a query from a man about whether to buy a “Pirates of the Caribbean” slot machine for his wife’s birthday. She’s a big slots fan. Someone was selling it for $300, but it had some mechanical problems. He was told to pass on it, that he could get a better machine much cheaper. Someone suggested that it was a pachislo slot machine made in Japan.
If he was at this auction house, he could’ve gotten it for a steal. The auctioneer noted that the machine had not been tested and was not even plugged into an outlet. “There’s no reason why it’s not working,” he said. He started the bidding at $500, and dropped it lower and lower until he got a final bid of $65.
This 25-cent machine was made by a company called Universal, one of several manufacturers I found on the web (the largest was IGT, which supplies most of the casinos in this country). I couldn’t tell how old it was, but it did have the bars and fruits on the reels, the right-hand lever with the black ball on its tip, and the crazy overload of text blaring prizes and numbers. Just like the ones I used to see at casinos but have been retired by the newer touch-the-dial-with-your fingers-and-use-the-lever-only-if-you’re-nostalgic.
Imagine having it in your basement beckoning you to come play, like that demonic Las Vegas slot machine in the 1960 Twilight Zone episode “The Fever” that a man believed was calling his name. Creator Rod Serling wrote that first-season episode after going to Las Vegas with his wife and being hijacked by a machine that apparently wouldn’t allow him to win, according to a book about his life.
I believe this was the first slot machine I’d seen at auction, but apparently there’s a big market for them. On one site, they were selling for $800 to $2,200. On another, they were much cheaper: $250 to $345, including a commemorative President Obama slot machine, which the site said was used in foreign casinos (it mentioned Japan). The machine, which sold for $295, was out of stock, though.
In my research of the machines, I came across some interesting info:
There is some question as to who first invented the slot machine. The name Charles Fey kept coming up, but so did the Sittman and Pitt company. In 1891, the Brooklyn, NY, company was said to have invented a machine that was the foundation for the modern slot machine. Some say that machine was more an upgraded poker machine (the machine is on the left in the photo above) whose payoff depended on the establishment where the machine was located – if in a bar, it was drinks. Fey working in San Francisco was the name most associated with the invention. He was said to have conceived the idea of a machine in 1887, but the year 1895 was most cited as the date he invented the Liberty Bell slot machine (on right in photo above) that offered an automatic payoff. Fey’s one-arm bandit was cast iron, had diamonds, spades, hearts and a cracked Liberty Bell on its reels. The payout was 50 cents. You can see one at the Liberty Belle Saloon & Restaurant in Reno, NV, which is said to be operated by his descendants.
The cherry and melon symbols on some games originated from the fruit-flavored chewing gums that was once given out as winnings, according to several sites. Pictures of the flavors were on the reels. That was oft-repeated on several websites.
The bar symbols came from the early logo of the Bell-Fruit Gum Company, which mass-produced machines that dispensed a stick of gum. Also oft-repeated.
Around 1963 or 1964, Bally developed the first fully electromechanical slot machine – called “Money Honey” – that allowed for automatic payout and a bottomless hopper. That was said to have led to the demise of the side arm or lever.
Laws regarding who can own a slot machine are all over the place. States that gladly take your money through their sanctioned casinos and lotteries don’t want you playing the slots in your basement. I guess they’re afraid you might start your own casino club with your friends. You can’t own a slot machine in nine states, can only own ones that are over 25 years old in others (such as California) and you can own as many as you want in still others.
That got me to wondering if the auctioneer and the man who bought the slot machine at auction knew the law here. If the buyer lived in Pennsylvania, he could not legally take the machine home unless it had been manufactured before 1941 or 1950 (depending on what website you checked). If he lived across the river in New Jersey, it had to be a pre-1941 machine. If he lived south in Delaware, it had to be 25 years old.
Slot machines are considered vintage or collectible at that age. Here is one man’s collection of antique slots. Bob Levy of Pennsauken, NJ, got started 20 years ago after seeing a slot machine in a Nevada pawn shop, and now has 500 of them, which he sells, and is considered an expert. Here are more early slot machines, and here are some early ads from the 1995 book “Lemons, Cherries and Bell Fruit Gum.”
If you’re looking to buy a slot machine, here’s some advice. But you really don’t need to buy. Also on the web are all kinds of online slot games waiting for you, beginner to advanced. You can lose your money at home in front of your computer or at the casino among the ringing sounds and dazzling colors and crazy quilt of people.
