Todays amusement arcades are packed full with gaming slot machines of all types. Drop a coin in and press the buttons to see whether your luck’s in!
Gaming slot machines (or slots) are often known as one armed bandits. Old-style ones with the lever arm could empty your pocket as fast as any robber! You’ll also hear them called fruit machines – after those cherries, plums and lemons! They’re essentially gambling machines where the luck of the draw dictates whether you get the jackpot!
Slot machines were originally any vending machine that you put money into. Today they’re generally understood to be gambling machines.
Blackpool Arcades…
Blackpool’s first purpose built amusement arcade was the Golden Mile Centre. Built by The Blackpool Tower Company it opened in 1968 in the old Funlandia building on Central Promenade.
Miniature gallopers and Comet Jets were surrounded by slot machines on the first floor. Up the escalator on the first floor was a funfair, dodgems and a new waltzer. Plus a full-size set of gallopers, double decker ghost train and a helter skelter called the Skyline Slip. Eventually the Sea Life took over.
… and Fylde Coast Fun!
Arcades are a ubiquitous part of any visit to the seaside. Leave the outside world behind and go through the doors into another world! Bright flashing lights and beeping bells and noises greet you as each machine beckons… Although Blackpool is the capital of Fylde Coast Arcades and Gaming Slot Machines you can find them pretty much anywhere today.
And todays modern arcades have all kinds of games and machines too. There’s the old fashioned ‘penny pushers’ although today they have 2p and 10p pieces! Get a tub of change and test your skill – aiming the coins in just the right spot to release an avalanche. Clustered together in an over 18’s area you’ll find the gaming slot machines.
Most modern arcades have a wide variety of slot machine type games too. Ride a motorbike or car at crazy speeds and crash as often as you like! Shoot dinosaurs with water jets. Catch balls in an air jet. See if your feet are fast enough to dance the combinations… and many, many more!
It’s great fun with something for all the family – all ages and abilities. And the great thing about arcades is that you can enjoy them whatever the weather! A cool retreat on those rare hot days – and welcome shelter from the rain and wind!
Arcades and Gaming Slot Machines on the Fylde Coast
Think of arcades and slot machines and Blackpool is probably the first place you’d visit. There’s a few arcades that will come to mind first –
But there are plenty more amusement arcades in Blackpool – check out our full list.
How Gaming Slot Machines Began
The first machines were more of an entertaining game, with payment and payout transacted across a drinks bar. In 1894 in San Francisco mechanic Charles Fey invented what we’d recognise as the very first traditional gaming slot machine.
But morality – and the clergy – opposed their use and they were eventually banned in San Francisco in 1909. To get round the opposition, the Industry Novelty Company introduced fruits in 1909, calling the slot machines chewing gum dispensers! With gum flavours replacing playing card suits, a few machines really did dispense gum! In 1910 the Mills Novelty Company added a picture of a gum packet. It soon became stylised into the ‘bar’ symbol we still see today. It was also the Mills Novelty Company who in 1916 invented the jackpot. A lucky player seeing certain combinations could release all the coins in the machine!
Organised crime gangs generally controlled those early years of slot machine distribution. That’s what eventually led to their eventual control and licensing.
Any desired frequency of pay outs can be programmed into modern slot machines. The house advantage can be anything between 1 and 50%. They’re the largest profit generator for nearly every casino.
Fylde Coast Firsts
The Olympia opened at the Winter Gardens in June 1930 with slot machines, palmists, games of chance and children’s rides.
And classed as obscene, ‘Mutoscope’ Parlours with penny slot machines showed photos of nude women.
Jukeboxes to Grab Machines and False Teeth!
In 1922 the four Hawtin’s brothers (Frank, Albert, Percy and Ernie) opened their factory at the corner of Chiswick Grove in Blackpool. They made jukeboxes and slot machines for funfairs.
In 1939 Frank Hawtin invented grab machines. Test your skill with the joystick operated jaws, to win a soft toy or trinket.
The Hawtin brothers didn’t restrict their skills to amusements! In 1946 they made the first British jukeboxes using the US Wurlitzer Symplex mechanism. During war-time, military planes would bring the US manufactured mechanism to the UK factory on Preston New Road. It switched from frivolous use during the war to making rings for aircraft gun turrets.
Then in 1946 Frank branched out into false teeth! Forming the Anglo-American Tooth Corporation he made the UKs first plastic false teeth!
The site of their former HQ at Preston New Road is now occupied with a Wickes DIY store.
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