PopKulture's photos with the keyword: gambling

Vintage pinball flyer for Ace by Bally Manufacturing Co., 1935. One-ball payout machines were a prolific variation on pinball through the early years. This led to huge sales, but even bigger problems down the road with critics that decried similar machines as degenerate and viceful.

Vintage arcade flyer for Electric Eye, a stylish mechanical shooting range by Exhibit Manufacturing Co. Gambling was every where in the 1930's, as manufacturers even adapted target ranges to be payout machines. While the advertised claim of "pistol taget pratice" implies a certain degree of skill, I've seldom encountered one of these old mechanical pistol ranges that shoots the ball consistently! That inconsistency - coupled with the "automatic changing odds" - make this more a pure gambling device than a skill machine.

Vintage pinball flyer for Rapid Fire by Exhibit Manufacturing Co., 1930's. The earlier pinball machines of the 1930's evolved from parlor games and bagatelle tables and offered 5, 7, or even 10 balls for a penny. This first generation of pinball machines was for pure amusement only, but gambling quickly became the name of the game, and one-ball payout machines replaced their earlier counterparts by mid-decade.

Vintage pinball flyer for Bazaar by Exhibit Manufacturing Co., 1937. Note the emergence of what would soon become the familiar backbox of today.

Vintage postcard view of downtown Reno, Nevada, circa 1950's.

Reverse of a vintage advertising brochure for the Harlich Manufacturing Company of Chicago, Illinois, depicting one of their popular offerings. Punchboards were once commonplace trade stimulators which offered gamblers and dabblers alike the chance to win cash, cigarettes, toys, lighters, or other premiums for as little as a penny a punch. Circa 1940's.

Vintage advertising brochure for the Harlich Manufacturing Company of Chicago, Illinois, depicting some of their colorful offerings. Punchboards were popular trade stimulators throughout the war years which offered gamblers and dabblers the chance to win cash, cigarettes, toys, lighters, or other premiums for as little as a penny a punch. Circa 1940's.

Vintage advertising flyer for Ray's Track by Bally Manufacturing of Chicago, Illinois, then the pinball capital of the universe. By the mid to late 30's, every manufacturer was rushing to cash in on the frenzied popularity of Ed Pace's Paces Races, the prototypical horse-racing consule of the type shown above, and Bally's founder and namesake, Ray Maloney, proved no exception. By my reckoning, Baker and Evans came closest in duplicating Pace's success, but then World War II got in the way, and the postwar gambling vacuum was filled in part by pinball-styled bingo machines and in greater part by a certain desert city...

Vintage advertising brochure from Gardner and Company of Chicago, Illinois, one of the largest manufacturers of punchboards. Circa 1940's.

Vintage advertising brochure from Noel's Gay Games of Muncie, Indiana, a longtime presence in the arena of counter-top games and trade stimulators such as punchboards and put-n-take jars. Circa 1940's.

Vintage advertising brochure for Bally Manufacturing's 1936 Snappy. Machines such as this offered one shot per coin and were more for gambling than what we think of today as pinball machines. Both the flyer and the machine itself, I must admit, with its wonderful Art Deco adornments, do indeed look "snappy!"

Interior spread from a vintage advertising brochure from Noel's Gay Games of Muncie, Indiana, depicting an intriguing and elaborate punchboard. Circa 1940's.

Vintage advertising brochure for the Harlich Manufacturing Company of Chicago, Illinois, some of whose punchboards can be seen in adjoining scans. Circa 1940's.

Vintage advertising flyer for Bally's 1936 All-Stars pinball machine, though not in the common view of the word. Pinball prior to 1947 meant no flippers, believe it or not. You'd just launch the ball, skillfully as possible, and then nudge the machine short of "tilting" it. Many machines like the one pictured above were "one-shots," or one ball per coin, and featured pay-outs. It took pinball many years to break the gambling stigma of the 1930's, and until the advent of the flipper, it was a tougher case to argue.