American Dream that you invested a small amount
of money with a (smaller chance of winning a great
sum! After all, we were a nation of Manifest
Destiny and a chance at instant wealth, albeit
unearned in the traditional sense, was in keeping
with our national image of ourselves as gamblers,
gunslingers and tamers of the Wild Frontier.
tured as the prime negative in the Ebay ad was the
least of my problems. For starters, the mechanism
was completely frozen with either rust or grime or a
healthy combination of both. There was a section of
the coin drop visibly missing and I had no idea how
the game was supposed to play, an important factor
in mechanism repair. And that was not the worst
part. The front of the playfield was really two sepa-
rate parts: the top section was wood backed fabric
and it had a sizable crack in the wood. Even worse,
the lower section was metal with a fabric overlay.
The metal was completely rusted and totally unsta-
ble. Significant parts of the game were fastened to
the metal and they were in jeopardy as well. This
was not going to be one of my usual "clean up"
jobs; this was a total restoration.
Contrast that, if you will to the genteel British. In
Britain, the Betting and Gaming Acts of 1853 and
1854 imposed severe restrictions on all automatic
games of chance and this was before any had been
invented. The primary concern was that gambling
would lead to the corruption of society. Having cen-
turies of history behind them rather than a scant
century plus change, the British had much more
"society" to protect than did we. Consequently, the
inventors of British games had to be careful to
ensure that their creations did not fall within the
notoriously broad category of "gambling devices or
games of chance" ! The practical result was that
their games had a "skill" factor and paid out such a
pitiful amount that a successful claim of gaming
could not credibly be lodged against them. One
unintended consequence of this is that legions of
British children grew up playing these quasi-gam-
bling games. If you see pictures of English fairs or
seaside pier arcades from the early tum of the cen-
tury forward, there are always children grouped
around these allwins and the like, pumping in their
pennies with adult-like adoration. This is easily con-
trasted with America where, to this day we still rel-
egate the legal playing of slot machines and the like
to the world of adult vice. The British restrictions
were relaxed somewhat in 1960 but this basically
explains the divergence between the gambling
games of America and Britain. If you look at most
of the British games, they are either games of "skill"
or "amusement devices" like viewers, strength
testers and automatons, what they call "working
models".
Have I mentioned my mechanical skills, or rather
lack of? I know I have. This was fast shaping up to
be the Mother of All Projects and I am the Son of
All Thumbs. Whenever I'm faced with what appear
to be insurmountable odds, I stand tall, throw back
my shoulders and shout "HELP" as loudly as I can.
In this case, the call went out in "Antique
Amusement Magazine", the British equivalent of
our "Gameroom" and "C.O.C.A. Times" magazines
combined. In short order, I received a reply from the
editor of AAM, Steve Hunt. You can visit the AAM
site at www.aamag.co.uk. Steve is a great fellow
and a British game restorer in addition to his duties
as editor. Tums out, Steve had restored a "Domino,
~ - - - - - - ~ Model 4" for another British
collector some time ago. He
gave me that collector's
name and telephone number.
One telephone call later, and
I had some pictures of the
restored game on the way.
While I was awaiting their
arrival, I received an email
from another English collec-
tor who had a Handan-Ni
"Domino" machine and
When I got "Domino" home and had a chance at a
offered help. I gladly accept-
closer look, it readily became apparent that the fab-
ed and he too sent me pie-
ric playfield which had been so prominently fea-
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