C.O.C.A. Times

T
his is a fascinating rare slot machine
that looks a lot like a counter or
amusement game; the DOMINO is full of
surprises. Appearances suggest it was made
in the early 1900's but in fact it was made in
either 1926 or 1927. And, though it looks like
it has American ingenuity, this machine was
made in Germany. Some people consider this
to be a paradox box because it doesn't really
resemble a slot machine, but it does have all
the criteria of a slot machine.
This machine was acquired through a no-
bid on eBay under the category of Antiques/
Other during the first week of January. The
seller, Richard Slatkin, was contacted a few
days before the auction ended and an offer
was made; he replied he wanted to run the full
10-day listing, and if it didn't sell, he would
entertain my offer. Since it did not sell, we
agreed on a price and a meeting place be-
tween Fort Worth and Dallas. Upon inspect-
ing the machine, there were spare parts in-
side including two 5-cent payout slides and
a nickel size token. During the exchange of
money and machine, Richard informed me
that several years earlier he inherited 7 bars
and taverns in the Fort Worth area from his
deceased uncles, and that this machine was
in one of their bars named "Bar Hop Stop".
There were 6 other slot machines discovered
along with this machine behind a hidden door
that he was unaware of until a severe hail
storm damaged the roof of this particular bar.
During his inspection of the roof, he noticed
that the floor plan of the rooms did not add
up, so after surveying the entire interior of the
building is when he found this small casino
room complete with bar, gaming tables and
slot machines. The uncles, Sam and Leslie
Frankrich, first started out helping with the
family grocery business that was started by
their parents in the 1920's. Richard believes
that this DOMINO machine was in the gro-
cery store and originally played on a nickel
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