Identification Help

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Identification Help

Postby Jaxrmc » Wed Jun 20, 2012 9:07 am

I recently picked up this machine and need help identifying/validating it.

I have more photos I can email, but are too large (approx 2Mb each) to post here.

It has definitely be refurbished (and I suspect it is a reproduction).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Attachments
Full_with_Stand.JPG
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Re: Identification Help

Postby ozymandias » Thu Jun 21, 2012 6:50 am

Fitzgerald's Hotel and Casino operated in Reno, Nevada from 1976 until 2008. Fitzgerald's Hotel Casino was built to rival Harrah's Hotel Casino, and be first class in all regards. The Nevada Gaming Commission licensed the property for 35 table games, two Keno games, and 1,000 slot machines. Fitzgerald's Hotel Casino was built to rival Harrah's Hotel Casino, and be first class in all regards. Fitzgerald's was named for owner (along with wife Meta) Lincoln Fitgerald who owned Reno's Nevada Club and had a colorful history going back to Detroit's Purple Gang. Fitzgerald was widely known for running casinos of the highest standards for decades, and Fitzgerald's Hotel Casino would be emblematic of that approach. Employees and facilities were all just so, and included gaming facilities on two floors, Molly's Garden coffee shop/diner, one first class restaurant and bar in Limericks, a fine buffet and entertainment center on the third floor, entertainment stage on the first floor, and a 16 story 347 room hotel. The slot machines began as mechanical Jennings-based machines. The Irish theme of the facility is seen in its bright green colors evident everywhere, and several niches of Irish themed artifacts such as Blarney Stones, being well exhibeted.

Yours is a casino slot in a Baldecchi case, the Baldecchi steel cases were opened from the front with a hinged door and the mech is on two tracks that slide out for access. Since the slot didn't have to be spun around to be serviced like the traditional rear door slots, they could be set closer together allowing casino owners to set more slots per linear foot and thus increase profits.

The stand it is on is newer than the machine of course. Nevada casino slots didn't have coin boxes (because they'd have to be attendant emptied contantly), they had a drop tube several inches in diameter that dropped coins into a 5 gallon bucket/container in a locked cabinet below. So when someone adapts these slots for home use, they usually either create a coin-catching wood base a few inches high with a locking door, or, like yours, they cut out part of the stand top and set the slot onto that.

I am guessing (not having seen a photo of the mech) that you have a Jennings mechanical mech inside since that is what LF rolled with in his Nevada Club and Fitzgerald's. The coin payout bowl is centered which further supports this - If it had a Pace mech like some of the Harrah's slots in Baldecchi cases, the coin payout bowl would set left of center and the trademark Pace rotary escalator might be visible in a window at the upper left. Being a casino slot in Nevada, all jackpots were attendant paid so they were not originally fitted with a jackpot on the mech. It should be a completely mechanical Jennings mech, but it will probably have a cord in the back which allows illumination of the front, an attendant call bell and a jackpot bell. There may be two small holes on top where a "candle" was mounted in the casino to contain those last two features.

Casino slots like this in the Baldecchi cases were the last mechanicals of the era; electromechanicals, and later, electronic slots eclipsed them, but these mechanicals were so dependable that casino owners kept them even though newer technology was available. A small handful of Nevada casinos used the Australian Aristocrat mechs for a while, which had a rotary escalator copied from the dependable Pace's, but odds are you have a Jennings mech inside, I have not seen an interior photo.
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Re: Identification Help

Postby Jaxrmc » Thu Jun 21, 2012 8:52 am

Here is the mechanism.
Attachments
Inside2.JPG
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Re: Identification Help

Postby ozymandias » Thu Jun 21, 2012 3:28 pm

Yes, it looks right. A Jennings Standard Chief mech with the old Fitzgerald's reel strips still on it. There's no jackpot projecting from the bottom center, but that would be correct for a Nevada casino slot where the jackpots had to be attendant-paid. There's usually a thumbscrew-locked latch that allows the mech to slide forward from the Baldecchi case on drawer slides for service or tinkering.
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Re: Identification Help

Postby Jaxrmc » Thu Jun 21, 2012 4:59 pm

Lower right hand side has the latch screw --- hard to see in the photo.

Any idea of the age on the machine?
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