Politicians and prosecutors have made reputations with anti-slot campaigns, and much of Lewis’ merchandise arrives at his shop with dents from sledgehammer blows inflicted by reformers and their deputies. Of course, gambling machines have always lingered just beyond the edge of respectability. The idea was to offer a machine that was eye-catching and full of seductive promise, Lewis said. The Ballyhoo, the Mills Silent Gooseneck, the Watling Checkerboard and dozens more were as much a part of masculine American recreational life in the early 20th Century as were spittoons and cigar smoke. Mills and Watling Manufacturing were putting out thousands of variations on the theme.
But a percentage goes right back to the house.”īack when there were slot machines in every saloon or speakeasy, companies such as Bally Manufacturing, F.W. “The principle of the machine is to give the pretext that, if you play it, you’ll get money back,” Lewis said. There are more, in various stages of disarray, in his workroom in the back. There are spinning wheel devices, push-pin Bingo games and a wooden Indian with a torso consisting of a golden one-armed bandit. There are old “3 Jack” machines, which direct tossed pennies through a field of pins to possible payoffs in little pockets at the bottom. Lewis has a collection of several dozen in his showroom on San Gabriel Boulevard, one or two of them dating back to the last century.