Coin Slot Location

The Golden Age of the Slot Machine 1909-39
of English companies were also advertising the
conversion of old slots into jackpot machines. In
fact, following Rockola's success with the jackpot
idea in America it was Caille who was first off the
mark with the Superior Jackpot model of 1928.
Mills did not follow suit until December 1928 with
the Jackpot Bell, three years after the Pollard
date.
Despite its widespread popularity in England the
slot machine succeeded in upsetting many people.
Not only the authorities but also, less predictably,
the people in the amusement industry who were
not directly involved in its operation. They saw it
as an unnecessary intruder which would not only
succeed in bringing the wrath of the authorities
upon itself, but also upon all related games and
machines. Slot machine operators were a new
breed, considered by many as the wide boys of
the industry. Its arrival in England in quantity,
and the attendant bad publicity had indeed begun
to cause problems for operators of other
machines and games which up until then had been
tolerated by the police. The situation was voiced
very aptly by the World's Fair in March 1927:
'Anyone who is not suffering from the affliction that
'Fairplay' is a martyr too, may ride on any bus
through London and the Provinces and see the
empty shops labelled 'Fun Fair', 'Fairground' and
'Amusement Palace' which were in most cases run
by 'mushroom' operators styling themselves
'showmen' during the fruit machine boom, and it is
these people who have brought the authorities down
on games which have for years been free from the
official ban.'
In March 1929, in response to an article whose
conclusion was 'ban those gambling machines',
which had appeared in Answers magazine, the
World's Fair ironically agreed saying:
'. . . they are not of the fairground, and should not
be allowed any connection with it. I refer of course
only to the machine which has no purpose except to
gamble and not to skill or amusement games.'
It was largely this attitude which led in October
1927 to the formation of the Amusement Caterers
Association. It had a wider scope than BAMOS
in that it sought to promote the interests of people
who ran amusement devices (e.g. on fairground
stalls) as well as coin-operated machines. Like
BAMOS the ACA aimed at parliamentary
representation through its first President Colonel
Harry Day, MP. However, it was to remain in
Mills Reserve Jackpot Bell with skill press
(1928-31)
many ways the poor relation of the two societies.
As a reaction to prevailing conditions a number of
attempts were made by British manufacturers to
make 'chance' machines which superficially
resembled counter pin wheel games, the one
crucial difference being that they largely operated
according to a pre-determined payout schedule.
Of this class of machine the most successful was
the Little Stockbroker made by the highly
inventive Granville Bradshaw.
One of the most significant English made
three-reels was the Club Totalizator. This
machine derived its name from the Totalizator,
which was legalised for use on English race tracks
in 1930. It was first made in 1931 by Gordon
Smith of the Essex Manufacturing Company and
William Lennards, who combined forces in that
year under the aegis of the Club Totalizator
Company in order to market it. The Club
Totalizator was a three-reeler with a jackpot of
their own design. The main difference between it
and other three-reelers was its use of numbers on
the reels as opposed to fruit symbols. As seen
with the Puritan in 1904 the use of numbers on the
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-»
XLV