Coin Slot Magazine - #009 - 1975 - June [International Arcade Museum]
ah appreciation of antiques, but the bust went on anyway, with the mach
ines presumably destroyed, • and lost to history.
About the same time, in a southern state, FBI Agents seized two machines
one built in the 1920!s and the other in the 1940's, that had been imported
from England by a local banker who was interested in coins and coin-
operated machines, even though the machines could not be played with
. United States coinage. The banker would have fought the case, except
that the charge of gambling, which the Federal agents assured him would
be brought up in court, would reflect badly on his position as a banker.
So the collector dropped the case, and the antique machines were lost.
More than a few collectors have bid and paid high prices for beautiful
machines at auctions across the country in the past year, only to have
the machines impounded before or after they took delivery, with great
financial loss to the collector, or dealer/ or both, not to mention the
legal problems.
The spate of collector busts across the country in recent months has
spooked most of the collectors of antique gaining machines to such a
•degree that now they are literally afraid to even talk about their collec
tions, much less show them off or offer assistance to historical resear
chers and museums as prestigious as even the Smithsonian Institution.
On top of this, even the heat is getting hotter. In April, 1975, it was
reported that an agent from the Attorney General's office of a large eas
tern state was pretending to be a collector. This agent has been visiting
collectors all over the state, dropping the proper names of recognized
collectors, and carrying a copy of Dave Christensen's book "Slot Mach
ines—a pictorial review, 1889-1973. " At least two busts have already
resulted, and more are expected to follow.
If all of this sounds like antique mechanical gaming machine ownership
is headed for even more trouble in the future than it has had in the past,
it is meant to. But in spite of the growing paranoia, there are rays of
legal light. Few, to be sure, but enough to work on. What is needed are
some legal judgments that reveal antique gaining machines for what they
are; objects of mechanical art rather than gambling devices. The ques
tion is: What is a mechanical antique ? If it were an automobile, camera,
toaster, or radio, anything over 25 years old is classified as an antique.
The automobile even has legal status in this regard^ with many states
providing special antique license plates (at low fates!) for a car, truck,
bus or other vehicle 25 years old or older. The same thing could be
applied to coin-operated gaming machines.
If there is any judicial hero to collectors across the country, it is Judge
James L. Focht of the Superior Court, San Diego, California who pre
sided over the case of a San Diego builder who had used a slot machine of
_
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m
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se agreed, and in his decision in
machine was an "art object.
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The judge
u was
fro machine
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d the
-
April, 1969, stated that
"no more vicious in the home
e
e
d
d
than an oil painting
as it was "well over the hill in
loa of a . slot
rca machine"
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the antique
Do line. / " / a w The
ww machine was forthwith returned to its owner. This
might have been
landmark decision, and it still can be if brought to the
:
tp proper authorities at the time of a seizure, %,or court date.
attention of
ht the
the 1920's as a decorator piece in a modeljhome.
It was seized by police in February, 1969. The defendant claimed the
It's a step in the right direction, but only a step. Other enlightened jud
ges have made similar decisions, while others have not. Unfortunately,
judgements in favor of private slot ownership are hit or miss propositions.
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