Coin Slot Magazine - #047 - 1978 - December [International Arcade Museum]
THE NEW YOEK TIMES, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1978
ANTIQUES
RITAREIF
Coin Machines Now
f intage coin-operated ma
chines — those gaudily
painted, graphically bold
and .voluptuously shaped
vending devices made be
fore World War II — repre
sent one of the youngest- and fastest-
growing categories of pop-culture col
lecting today.
.But the phenomenon-is one of the
least publicized—and for good reason.
Some of the most ptiz®d examples are
gambling .games- — pinbail. machines
and one-armed bandits, and they ar©
i llegal to own In all but 13 sfates.
/
' Pioneer collectors began snapping up
these- curious coin«gobblers ■ In Hie
19508s. But the real growth of interest
came much later — In. the last five
years. Nationwide, there are now 1,§®CI
to 2,000 serious collectors and 5,QD© to
10S000 more people who own one ©r
more machines, 'according to Melvin
Getlan*. founder and president, of the
Society for the.Preservation of Historic
cal Coin-operated Machines, 10© North.
Central Ave., Bartsdale, N.Y* The or
A coin-operated machine
ganization is less than one year old and
so far has attracted about 50 members. •
■■ Actually, there are at least 1© coliec»
That was in 1976 and since then deal
ers have surfaced, opened shops- and
tors from here to California of as many
sold to department stores. The major
as 40© or more examples, of whid^ It Is
said, some of the. most valuable and
complex are the gambling machines.
law in order to permit ownership of
pre-1941 gambling machines, 9s long as
sources include the Great American
Mechanical Entertainment Systems-
(G1A.M.E.S.) of Van Nuys, Calif. 5 Cote.
Slot of Downey, Calif., -and Antique
Gambler of Renor Nev. Sinc^ then*
also, other states have followed suit.it
is now legal to own (but not use un!aw«
fully) such devices in' Minnesota (the
only other state where it's, been legal
since the turn of the century), Florida,
Illinois, Missouri New ■ Hampshire,
poses.
Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.
om
m.c
:
u
m
e
fro the -mus
d of
.The'biggest dealer^and most
e
e
d
top collectors are centered
West
loa In the
cad
r
n
a
.
w
—- in Nevada, o
gambling
w ma
D where for
ww
chines have been legal //
decades^ and
:
p
tt
California, the h
first-state
to rewrite its
®
they are not used for unlawful pur
Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota,
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http://www.arcade-museum.com/
12