Classic Mode

Coin Slot

Issue: 1975 June 009

Page 6 Text:

Coin Slot Magazine - #009 - 1975 - June [International Arcade Museum]
applies only if they are operated as gambling devices
I There's an impor-
tant distinction here. It's what people do with machines that make them
troublesome. For instance, an antique revolver could be used in a hold
up, but the person using the gun is culpable, not the gun. Yet as an anti
que without criminal use, the gun can be owned, and displayed. An anti
que sports car could be used for a getaway in a robbery. The robbers
would be the criminals, not the car. The car, if not criminally used, is
a valid antique, and can be exhibited, and driven. But here's where the
inconsistencies come in. Anyone that has a slot machine is automatically
a criminal by virture of machine ownership, whether it works or not. In
most states it is illegal to own a slot machine. Federal laws now on the
books make it illegal to ship slot machines across state lines without
government approval, no matter what the age or condition. FBI and state
"busts" of collectors and antique dealers buying, selling, trading and im
porting such machines are occurring with increasing frequency. It is even
illegal in some areas to reproduce or distribute the well-known slot mach
ine fruit symbols in spite of their use in national advertising and printing.
While there has been a so-called Sexual Revolution (you can discuss just
about everything now, even have it printed or filmed), there has obviously
been no Slot Machine Revolution; To have a machine is to gamble illegally
in the eyes of the law in most states. The law in the state of Illinois is
typical. Article 28 of the Illinois Criminal Code (28-l-a-3) states "A
person commits gambling when he: operated, keeps, owns, uses, purcha
ses, exhibits, rents, sells, bargains for the sale or lease of, manufac
tures or distributes any gambling device ", and (29-5-a) "every gambling
device which is uncapable of lawful use is contraband and shall be subject
to seizure, confiscation and destruction... (which) includes any slot
machine, and includes any machine or device constructed for the recep
tion of money or other thing of value and so constructed as to return on
chance to the player thereof money, property or a right to receive money
or property ."
The major fallacy in the whole legal concept of prohibiting the private
collecting and display of mechanical gaming machines is the alleged conn
ection with gambling. People who collect slot machines (Yes—there are
collectors, in spite of the enormous legal difficulties) don't use themTor
gambling. For one thing, they don't like to have their treasured machines
used too often. It wears them out* and things can go wrong. Secondly,__
there is no possible way to make moneyiat "iC; The depreciation of money, ♦
and the many expensive service calls'needed to keep the machine working,
would cost more than the take. Maybe, back in the twenties or thirties,
unscrupulous operators (and even then most of them were honest business
men !) could make the slots turn a good dollar through muscle and multi-
pie locations. But there's no way that a machine, or two, or ten, or twe
nty in a basement or game room could begin to pay their way. True, the
real devotee wants the machines to work, and generally provides a bowl
of coins (If you're really into it, they'll be Liberty Head nickels! ) so
they can be played. But it's house money I I've never met a collector—
and I've met many—that ever made money on their gaming machines.
Entertainment, yesl Income, nol
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Gambling isn't w
the
arc to a the collector, anyway. It's the machines
.
o
w
D
w
themselves.
:—
://w under the law, there are many, and all against the
p
t
t
As for inequalities
h
private owner. For instance, a beautifully restored Caille NEW CEOTURY
•DETROIT is on display in a simulated 19th century street in the Detroit
City Museum. The law apparently closes its eyes to the museum, but a
private collector in Detroit having the same machine faces the prospect of
© The International Arcade Museum
http://www.arcade-museum.com/

Page 7 Text:

Coin Slot Magazine - #009 - 1975 - June [International Arcade Museum]
machine confiscation and destruction as ueell as personal legal charges.
The same situation exists in California, where the Oakland Museum has a
beautiful Mills DEWEY MUSICAL on display in the State of California His
torical Section. If it is legal, or permissable, for publicly-funded museums
to display machines in states where slot ownership is illegal, why isn't it
legal for private citizens in the same states ? Even the Smithsonian Inst
itution in Washington, D. C., is apparently considering the collecting and
display of mechanical arcade and possibly gaming machines. Up until a
year or so ago the Smithsonian Institution had ignored the slot machine.
There were none in the national mechanical collection, nor was there any
thing on slot machines in the Smithsonian's Division of Mechanical and
Civil Engineering files. Thus, the first generation of American automatic
machines of the late 19th Century, and later, and the technical parents of
the computer, had been ostracized. In'April, 1973, Danny A. Morris, the
Museum Specialist, Division of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, in ans
wer to a letter I had written to the Museum on the subject, wrote: "We
have nothing in our files on the machines. As luck would have it, word is
flying about the Museum... concerning a group of confiscated slot machi
nes now in Florida or Louisiana. No one here seems to be interested in
the possibility of curating a collection of slot machines so we will probably
end up passing on them." But now comes word that The Smithsonian is con
sidering publication of a museum-sponsered book on arcade and gaming
machines similar to their fabulous Juke Box book. Perhaps the acceptance
of the technical and historical merits of these most American of amuse
ment devices by our National Museum of History and Technology will lift
the curtain and help make private ownership possible on a national basis.
But this takes a loug time. Meanwhile, uniquely American mechanical
treasures are being confiscated, broken up and burned by unenlightened
law officers supported by narrow-minded courts across the country.
The laws against the private ownership of slot machines — Federal, state
and local—are not only repressive; they are repressively carried out. In
every state of the Union, except Nevada, it is illegal to own, and operate,
a slot machine. Even if you ignore those laws, there are others that can
be even worse. In every state of the Union, including Nevada, a Federal
tax stamp of up to $250 must be annually affixed to a coin-operated gam
ing machine, and in some states, particularly Nevada, additional tax
levies are added. So, if you-had a forty-year-old machine on display in
your den for its beauty—no matter what state you-lived in—if you didnft
pay your tax stamps, you1 d be breaking a whole raft of laws and be up for
a multitude of fines without any prospect of getting a return on your inves
tment. The repressive part is that you would be taxed for a gambling de
vice, yet it wouldn't be used for gambling. $250 per machine per yeax *
every year is a lot of money to put out for an antique mechanical exhibit.
And now we come to the heart of the matter and the repressive acts con
ducted against antique coin-op machine collectors in the name of the law.
com
.
m
:
u
from -muse
d
e
machines.
d a series
ade of major "busts" forcefully demonstra
.Barely over a year
loa later
rc didn't
n
a
.
w
ted that the state
legislators
mean what they said, with a number of
o
w
w
collectors D
suffering
great personal and financial losses when their mach
w
/
/
:
ines were confiscated
and they came under IRS scrutiny. Above all, their
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machines were taken away and many destroyed.
For one glorious moment last year, when the state of Ohio repealed
statute 2015.15 of its Legal Code, to be effective January 1, 1974 Ohio
collectors felt they were at last free to buy, sell, trade and exhibit their
Some time ago, one antique dealer carefully checked the FBI, the local
police, and the customs service before importing some classic machines.
© The International Arcade Museum
http://www.arcade-museum.com/

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