Vintage One Arm Bandit Number Two - pays to hunt around!

[malcymal]

Well, my house is becoming an amusement arcade with pachislos and now we have two one armed bandits following the purchase of this baby from a local add. Its a late 60's model running on the old 6 pence coin (or 6d) quickly adapted with some spacer washers to run on new 5 pence piece (will also accept US dimes)

Bandits have rocketed in price in the UK, the nostalgia of losing all your money down at the seaside when you were a kid is a big grab for us old enough to remember them. What i have to say, is if you are looking to buy a bandit you dont have to get into a bidding war on ebay, hunt about on local adds through the internet. (that old chestnut by ebayers saying "I dont know much about these machines, not sure if its all there etc" is bull, especially when theres a second bandit to edge of photo and their feedback shows they have sold them before. If this is the case, avoid.

I found this one for sale only 15 miles away on an advert that was one month old. I rang, left a message on the phone and the lady got back to me, so already she had realised that she may not sell it (on ebay she would of done well). This machine was a steal at £50, its all mechanical , electric only for lights, and in perfect operational order following some help from some bandit experts, a tiny screw needed adjusting. On ebay ive seen this going for £250-300 (often been chopped about, the wrong reels, no locks, no keys etc) so it pays to wait if you want one and even more of a buzz when you get one cheap in good order. This machine is a Berkely Light, a british made SEGA (thats right, the same company who made sonic the hegehog) SEGA took over the US company of MILLS and the machines were rebadged by identical to the MILLS machines. MILLS machines cost a fortune in the UK, and the dear old Sega/Berkely is a highly underated machine (coin mech actually far more reliable). So, if you fancy a dip into something different in between playing king camel etc, be brave and buy a mechanical marvel. If you missed my other jubilee bandit, this can be viewed at http://www.cyborg7.com/jubilee/jubilee.wmv Similarly a real steal.

Today ive played 1000 tokens through MUMU World and won nothing, the king camel was equally tight, and my two bandits fleeced me of 200 coins in an hour. I do not have luck on my side!!! If anybody wants more info on bandits, old coins ops, weird and wacky machines then take a look at, www.pennymachines.co.uk Cheers all, malc

[dattia]

Today ive played 1000 tokens through MUMU World and won nothing, the king camel was equally tight, and my two bandits fleeced me of 200 coins in an hour. I do not have luck on my side!!! If anybody wants more info on bandits, old coins ops, weird and wacky machines then take a look at, www.pennymachines.co.uk Cheers all, malc

...and yet all you have to do is open those machines to get all your goodies back! It is indeed nice to own the casino!

Congrats on a great find!

[malcymal]

Yes, that is the great relief isnt it... all your coins returned ! But hey, i still get stressed and angry when i dont hit my BB. I feel as if i cant switch off the pachis until ive hit the winners...trouble is time passes more and more, that door is opened more and more and clutching a handful of tokens to try and again then LOSE is really annoying... LOL.
That little old Jubilee bandit (video now working) i have never won the jackpot, nobody has lined up 3 bars or melons...mind you the odds of doing so are 8000 to one, or either 4000 to one. When i last opened the jubilee there was £60 in it of 5p pieces. 1200 coins. I guess i will pulling the handle on that thing for years before i ever win the jackpot on the front!.

[Sid]

beautiful Machine!! and quite the steal!!

[malcymal]

beautiful Machine!! and quite the steal!!

Hey Sid, ive come across this machine from a guy in Sweden and it actually came from Italy. It was the Italian equivalent of the US Segas and used US Pace parts. Ive had info that they were sold around the mediteranean areas of europe, have you seen any of these in Greece?

[Sid]

Games of chance such as slot machines are heavily regulated here in Greece you would not see any such machines in private hands..

if im not mistaken it is illegal to own slot machines...

Greeks in general have a fear of the "devil Machines" (slots, pinballs, arcade games, fruit machines etc)

sad reality is most Greeks just amuse themselves watching football, and going out drinking coffees with their friends.. coupled with the fact that a lot of 20+ 30 somethings still live with their parents and available space is at a minimum.. this sort of collecting is unheard of here ... i get weird looks by people when they see my game room
which was until this saturday 2 pachislos and 3 pachinkos.. and a mame cabinet..
its like im some freak.. (thats besides the point really )

i really wish there was more of a following out here...

the last people i had contact with regarding Pachinkos were a dad and son in northern Greece who got hold of my name etc through a vendor thats no longer in business who wanted some local help and all thy wanted were to start up a shady numbers business based on the spins of the pachinkos...

i said thanks but no thanks...

[Meathead]

I love those old mechanical models. That one is beautiful! Something comparable here (like an old Mills, etc.) would be thousands of dollars. Here, a large number of states that ban slots otherwise allow them if they are 20 or 25 years old. These 'antique' machines go way up in value. But something like yours I would imagine would be valued much higher than a 25 year-old machine here.

Nice purchase!

[Chris]

What a bargain you got there & a lovely machine as well

[malcymal]

I love those old mechanical models. That one is beautiful! Something comparable here (like an old Mills, etc.) would be thousands of dollars. Here, a large number of states that ban slots otherwise allow them if they are 20 or 25 years old. These 'antique' machines go way up in value. But something like yours I would imagine would be valued much higher than a 25 year-old machine here.

Nice purchase!

If they are banned in certain states, is is not lawful to have one in a private home?? There are still laws like this in the UK, they are just overlooked for bandits. The only think slightly different over here is that, we firstly got rid of all our old currency and went decimal. We then mucked about with decimal coinage by reducing the sizes of
the 10p, 5p and 50p coin, also copper coins had their copper removed, all silver coins before 1947 had silver in to (this affected coin mechs that used forms of magnets to stop 'slugs and duds' getting into machine to trick it. This also, made a lot of machines redundant.
When decimalisation came in, hundreds of machines could be seen having hammers put through them at the arcades as there was nothing that could be run on them anymore. Correct me if im wrong, but in the states, hasnt your coinage remained identical in everyway for many many years? hence, classic vintage machines are still capable of running the coins they were originally built for, with that coin still being in circulation?? PS. I have put this picture on before, but in case you havent seen it, here it is again. These were generally built in Australia, however this one was built in London under franchise of the Australian company Aristocrat (still going today) Jubilee being a subsidary.
Known as Pokeys out there, cause they had poker symbols on the reels instead of fruits.

[Meathead]

You've pointed out the ridiculousness of some of our laws. Yes, our coins have remained the same, but in many states where slots are not legal, fully functional "antique" slots are (as long as they are not used for gambling purposes). So, living in a state in which I cannot own a slot machine, even a slot that requires no money (or anything of value) to accrue credits, and with the hopper removed, etc., etc., I can legally purchase a functioning Vegas style machine as long as it dates prior to 1984.

It doesn't make sense to me either.

[hanabi]

Nice finds and they look in super condition too

I really like those, perhaps I'll get to add one to my own collection some day

[ultramanst]

i pestered my parents when i was 14 years old for a one-armed bandit,birthday came and went and i was gutted...my faather eventually gave in (cos` i was so depressed),he hinted that something was on the way,a week later i was the proud owner of a JENNINGS TIC-TAC-TOE with bronze indian head ,chrome on everything and a red knob on the arm.it also came with the original stand...at sixteen i sold it for £500 cash($750, to a collector in london(money sent return post/six months later a van turned up).

My father was gutted because he confessed that it only cost him £5 from a local club,and they had asked if he wanted the other two in the cellar...he`d said no!!!

the jackpot was £5.00`s worth of old 5 pence pieces,a flap opened up on the front of machine and it just dropped into gated archway payout tray...what a sound.

for every jackpot it paid out i emptied on average £20.00 from rear cashbox.DAMN WHY DID I SELL IT???

[malcymal]

£500 for a jennings indian head...whoaaa. I share your pain...