This little story is courtesy of Mr. Raymond Watts at rwatts03@swbell.net

One day I wrote Raymond Watts and asked him if it was OK for me to reference his website on mine. Raymond wrote me back and from the very beginning has been sharing some neat things with me. Thank you Raymond, as stated your website is one of my favorites when it comes to Bingo and other coin-operated games. You have compiled some real wonderful history and I am glad you shared this extra story with me.

Raymond's 1st email to me:

Thanks for the reference to your site. You've done tons of work there. Great. I appreciate the references to my pages. I am older and have played a large number of these games beginning with the one-balls. For those who have never played the games, it is difficult to imagine the fascination they held for players. I think the stainless trim rails, which replaced the woodrails, were anti-cheat devices to prevent drilling and running a wire in over the playfield. Drilling below the stainless came out below the playfield.

My response to him

Please tell me more about drilling a hole and running a wire up over the playing field. Where is the wire routed? What purpose does it serve? This is the first I have heard of this, you got me very curious.

- Note form Me -

I literally laugh out loud when I read this next email

Ray's Response:

A gang of players would gather around a machine. One on the side would use a ratcheting drill and punch a hole in the side of the cabinet below the glass and above the playfield. A coat hanger type wire could be inserted to close a ball hole switch to complete a winning lineup if one hole was missed.

On the old horserace machines here in Galveston the operators suspended sheet metal inside the cabinet screwing it in just at the top. With these wooden-cabinet machines, if someone drilled a hole, they could not penetrate the sheetmetal as it would just swing out of the way the further the drill was inserted. Viz-a-viz, no hole. Puncture-proof! It kept players from stopping the spinner with a wire.

About the bingos, I would like to see a sequence of operation published. I am not skillful enough to determine that from the schematics.

My final response was to ensure Ray that I would post a matrix showing the sequencing Bingos go through at turn-on. I plan on dedicating a page to this. With help from Jeffery Lawton’s book and Phil Hooper’s guidance while helping me to fix my broken Bingos, I a pretty good idea of what you should see when these pins turn-on.

      You should see this early in 2003




 
This page was last updated on 12/02/2002