Location-Forty
since it could only be used in areas where the local laws
had been either poorly or loosely worded . However it
remained in manufacture throughout the 50s ,
ultimately proving to be a poor substitute for the real
thing it suffered the same fate of the earlier devices. In
1953 Jennings also launched a machine which made use
of this device , which was marketed as the Joker, and
was manufactured in amputated form without coin slot
or payout cup.
CONSISTENT MOVE
As referred to earlier. Nevada Iaw set no limitations on
the amount of money that could be won from a slot
machine so long as that money was guaranteed and
attainable. Historically there had been a consistent
move on the part of manufacturers to increâse the
amount of money that a machine was capable of paying
out automatically in an effort to radically increase its
play appeal. The introduction of the jackpot in the
1920s was a direct result of this . However it proved for
a long time mechanically impossible to greatly increase
a machine's capacity to pay out automatically and
reliably. The introduction of the Gold Award idea by
Mills in the early 30s was accepted as an answer to this
problem, and as time went by this feature became
increasingly important, so that by the 1950's ail big
jackpots were being house paid. The electrical Console
units proved to be only a temporary solution . In 1947
Jennings Iaunched a machine known as the Challenger
Console Bell which featured a live jackpot and was
capable of paying out automatically up to 1,200 coins.
However with the ever increasing importance of
Nevada and the legal stipulation that ail payouts had to
be guaranteed and attainable the Consoles ultimately
lacked both the necessary reliability and capacity.
Indeed the problem was to defy adequate solution until
1960. In that year the Automatic Coin Machine
Equipment Novelty Company of Las Vegas Iaunched
the Acme Roulette Console, an automatic roulette
machine giving a player 40 betting options on each spin
of the ball. However by the following year, because of
the machines faulty technical performance production
was stopped and it was consigned to oblivion. Despite
this it has in recent years gained a new historical
significance, in that it now appears to have been the
first automatic machine to incorporate the hopper
payout system, which has proved to be the solution to
the mechanical payout problem.
BRAINCHILD
The hopper payout system • is generally ascribed as
being the brainchild of Mike Wichinsky, a former New
York operator, who was working as a croupier in the
early 1960s at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. The
system consisted of an electrical computing unit
working in conjunction with a large capacity (over
1,000 coins) electric bank type coin hopper and counter
unit. It could instantly register a win and pay out coins
at an astonishing rate of sixper second, and as such
represented a major advance over ail previous payout
systems.
1949 MILLS BLACK BEAUTY
Wichinsky contacted Bally in Chicago, who were
immediately interested in the system , and following the
relaxation of the more oppressive of the anti-gambling
Iaws in Illinois in 1963 were able to develop and
produce it from their manufacturing base in Chicago .
The result represented a return by that company to the
slot manufacturing field after an absence of some 13
years. In 1964 they launched two new models , the
Crusader and the Money Honey. The use of the hopper
payout system enabled Bally to became ready leaders
in the slot machine manufacturing field in what was
then an expanding market. The Money Honey with its
radical design, signalled the introduction of the
electromechanical machine onto the world stage, which
was in a short time to become a standard feature of the
1960s and early 70s. The development of the hopper
payout system occurred at a propitious time , not only
with regard to the demands of Nevada's casinos , but
also in relation to Iegal developments in England ,
which was to provide the manufacturing companies
with a greatly increased market for their products.
©Nicholas Costa 1983.
Illustrations from Slot Machines-a Pictorial Review by
D. Christensen; Published by Vesta/ Press, New York,
1977.