Unusual Craps Machine - Bonanza Million Dice

This is the place to post about any fantastic find (past or present) that you think the rest of us would enjoy reading about.

Unusual Craps Machine - Bonanza Million Dice

Postby Dave » Sun Aug 21, 2016 8:49 pm

Those that know me know that I like oddball and weird machines. :-D

I actually remember playing this machine in a dumpy casino called Nob Hill on the strip back in the summer of 1981. I only played the machine a few times to watch it operate. The odds were so horrible that I never played it much.

Back then I was doing an internship for Honeywell in LA and virtually every weekend I went to Vegas with friends. Back then I was a card counter and Nob Hill was one of the places I liked to hit. Almost got thrown out of the place but I guess I never won enough.

Anyway I always thought this machine was cool and that was before I bought my first slot machine.

During the last COCA convention a collector was showing me his collection and as soon as I saw this I immediately recognized it. I asked him if it was for sale and he said yes. I just took delivery of it a few days ago.

Only then did I find out who made it. It was made by a company by the name of Bonanza. I have never heard of them and am guessing they didn't stay in business long. These were made in the late 70's or very early 80's. I have not been able to find a date of manufacture on it but I know they existed in 1981 because that is when I played it.

The game is simple. Deposit 1 - 5 quarters and make a bet on what the dice total will be. The choices are 2, 7, 11, 12, 6 and below, 8 and above.

If you win you have the option of collecting your winnings or try to double up by selecting "6 and below" or "8 and above".

If you win this bet you can chose to try and double up or collect your winnings.

The machine plays with real dice and throws them and then reads the total.

I have searched the Internet and found virtually nothing. I did find a post in this forum from a guy who found one several years ago. He posted a request for information and no one responded. If you know anything about this machine or the company then please let me know.

I plan to do a YT video later but here are some photos.
Attachments
IMG_4472.jpg
IMG_4473.JPG
IMG_4474.JPG
IMG_4475.JPG
IMG_4476.JPG
User avatar
Dave
Site Admin
 
Posts: 1781
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:29 pm
Location: Broomfield CO

Re: Unusual Craps Machine - Bonanza Million Dice

Postby Anglobritish » Sun Aug 21, 2016 10:48 pm

scan0015.jpg
s-l1600 (2).jpg
s-l1600.jpg
Chiba-MARMATIC-ROULETTE-Roulette-Machine-Flyer.jpg
Hi,
Bonanza Enterprises Ltd was owned by Kay Shiba in Yokahama, Japan, Kay brought out the first Video Poker game in 1978, I am pretty sure that your game was developed by my old friend and business associate the late Mickey Wichinsky who owned Games of Nevada Inc. Mickey was close to Kay Shiba, and this possibly could have been a joint venture, I was in Japan with Mickey and Kay in 1980, Kay used to keep his own private bottle of Chivers Regal in the bar of the Ocura Hotel in Tokyo. I think the machine that you have was made in Las Vegas by Mickey's company Games of Nevada Inc, under license from Kay Chiba's Bonanza Enterprises Ltd. See the attaches pictures of the game that Bonanza Enterprises Ltd, made, and other machines that were made by this early Japanese coin machine character and pioneer.

Freddy Bailey
Anglobritish
 
Posts: 274
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2014 11:36 am
Location: Edgewater, New Jersey. U.S.A.

Re: Unusual Craps Machine - Bonanza Million Dice

Postby tsparts4u » Mon Aug 22, 2016 11:22 am

I have a similar dice game. Mine seems to have been made by IGT. It was working great.....until we moved. It is now inoperative. Anyway, I thought a picture might be of interest.
Attachments
IGT DICE GAME TAG.JPG
IGT DICE MACHINE.jpg
tsparts4u
 
Posts: 223
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 6:58 pm
Location: Franklin, WI

Re: Unusual Craps Machine - Bonanza Million Dice

Postby Dave » Mon Aug 22, 2016 5:39 pm

Freddy thanks for the information. Very interesting.

Below is the serial number sticker on mine. I see no date of manufacture on it.

I am guessing that mine was made in Japan and imported to the USA and the one that tsparts4u has was made in Nevada.

My machine was also not working when I bought it. It took some time but I was eventually able to get it working perfectly.
Attachments
IMG_4471.JPG
User avatar
Dave
Site Admin
 
Posts: 1781
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:29 pm
Location: Broomfield CO

Re: Unusual Craps Machine - Bonanza Million Dice

Postby Dave » Mon Aug 22, 2016 5:51 pm

tsparts4u wrote:I have a similar dice game. Mine seems to have been made by IGT. It was working great.....until we moved. It is now inoperative. Anyway, I thought a picture might be of interest.


It looks like your machine has a credit meter and I am guessing the white button is used to play off credits.

My machine does not have a credit button. When you win you have two choices. Try to double up or collect your winnings.

I hope you can get your machine working again
User avatar
Dave
Site Admin
 
Posts: 1781
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:29 pm
Location: Broomfield CO

Re: Unusual Craps Machine - Bonanza Million Dice

Postby tsparts4u » Mon Aug 22, 2016 6:15 pm

My machine is a credit machine. It does appear that it could be a payout machine if you had the hopper for it.
I had someone look at the machine, but he was unable to fix it. Without a schematic, he wasn't able to do much.
It worked fine before we moved, but after the move the credits were not working right. As I remember, if you tried to play a certain number of credits it would not take the correct amount off. It has been so long since I even looked at it, I really don't remember if it worked at all when I got it back. It was a fun machine to play......when it was working.
tsparts4u
 
Posts: 223
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 6:58 pm
Location: Franklin, WI

Re: Unusual Craps Machine - Bonanza Million Dice

Postby Dave » Mon Aug 22, 2016 6:21 pm

tsparts4u wrote:My machine is a credit machine. It does appear that it could be a payout machine if you had the hopper for it.
I had someone look at the machine, but he was unable to fix it. Without a schematic, he wasn't able to do much.
It worked fine before we moved, but after the move the credits were not working right. As I remember, if you tried to play a certain number of credits it would not take the correct amount off. It has been so long since I even looked at it, I really don't remember if it worked at all when I got it back. It was a fun machine to play......when it was working.


It is really odd that the machine from IGT would not have a hopper in it. I have a manual for mine which also has schematics. the schematics are probably close but not exact for your machine.

Dave
User avatar
Dave
Site Admin
 
Posts: 1781
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:29 pm
Location: Broomfield CO

Re: Unusual Craps Machine - Bonanza Million Dice

Postby Dave » Tue Aug 23, 2016 8:23 pm

I did a quick and dirty YT video of this machine. If I can get some better light in the area of the house that the machine is in I will shoot another one so it won't be so grainy.

https://youtu.be/oyYfMWKFV-U
User avatar
Dave
Site Admin
 
Posts: 1781
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:29 pm
Location: Broomfield CO

Re: Unusual Craps Machine - Bonanza Million Dice

Postby SLOT DYNASTY » Wed Aug 24, 2016 3:31 am

OK Gang:
Now it's time to add one more bit of info to this already confusing lineup, that Dave started.
Thank you Dave. =D> I am not a big fan of late model machines, but when it comes to anything with Dice, I can't resist.

I'll start off by apologizing for the blurry pix below, but it's all I have at the moment, due to an unsteady hand, taking a snap
of a 35mm print. I can't offer a "NOW" shot, because the machine stopped working several years ago, and I delivered it, along
with the schematic, to a Casino Slot Mechanic, in Nevada, owned by a friend. His mechanic fooled with it off & on for quite some
time, and was only able to get it working sporadically. He was hoping to get help from another Casino mechanic, and put it aside,
and that's where it still sits to this day. I could never understand what the problem was, as there really wasn't as much electronics
inside, compared to other similar machines from the same period, that were a complete nightmare inside. A friend and I, first saw
another variation of this machine, (much tallercase, with additional selector buttons above), in only two Casinos, in Vegas. There
were two or three, in the "El Cortez", downtown, and two just inside the doorway of the "Thunderbird", on the strip. A short time
later, we went back to Vegas, and headed off to play them, because they were fun to play, but to our surprise, they had all been
taken off locations. Found out later, they were very problematic, so to the 'Boneyard' they went. It was several months later that
we bought two, like the one below, from a well known dealer, that dealt heavily in out-of-date Casino machines. They were not the
same model, as the ones we played in the clubs, but close enough. In fact, he had never come across the taller case model, so there
must have only been a handful of those. Ha! Or maybe just the five we seen? When I first started having problems with mine, we were
going to swap parts between the two, to see if we could figure out the problem ourselves, but after closer observation, noticed that
the capacitors, and resisters were different in each, so didn't want to take the chance to fry something. Was even going to switch the
entire dice cage, (as it slides right out, in one unit), but didn't attempt that either.
Now here's the corker. Our machines were made by Roman Industries, in Nevada, and are called "Crap Shooter", as noted on the parts
and schematic booklet. Right now, I am not sure of the year-of-mfr., as I never took pics of the tags, and my friends machine has been
moved to another home, out-of-state.

So what we have so far, is your typical "Copy-Cat" mfrs., making the same machine, with slightly different graphics, but all having the
same play features. Bonanza Ent., IGT, and Roman Ind. Wonder if anyone else got into the act. Also, I never found out who made the
taller case model, that we seen on location. One thing I did notice in this thread, is that the two machine tags shown, both have the
Model No. as MIC-R2. Hmmm! A date of Feb. 1982 on the IGT, and no date on the Bonanza. I'm just guessing, that all variations of this
machine, were mfr'd from 1980 to 1982. But where the hell did they all go?
Roman Industries 25c 'Crap Shooter' (35mm) (2).JPG
Roman Industries "Crap Shooter"


Now, for Freddy:
I had met your late friend Mickey Wichinsky, just a few times, and he had done a couple of unsolicited favors for me at the time. It all
began with my introduction to Mickey, by Barney Schapiro, of U.S.Coin, whom also built machines for Casinos. I do remember hearing
the name Kay Shiba at the time, but never met him.
Also, very interesting flier on that Bonanza "Super Dice" Never seen one of those. I also had to laugh at the mis-spelling of the Charlie
Fey name, that I caught before reading the notes to the left.
Cheers, Bill
User avatar
SLOT DYNASTY
 
Posts: 1497
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 3:56 am
Location: S.F. Bay Area & San Mateo County, California

Re: Unusual Craps Machine - Bonanza Million Dice

Postby Dave » Wed Aug 24, 2016 9:26 am

Bill:

It looks almost identical. The two differences with the machine shown in your picture are:

1: It does not have the double up option. It looks like it pays out automatically on every win.
2: It pays much more generously on the 2, 7, 11, and 12 bets. All bets have the same rake of about 16%. On my machine, the 2, 7, 11, and 12 bets have about a 33% rake.

My machine was also not working when I got it. However, after spending some time on it and going though it I got it working perfectly.
User avatar
Dave
Site Admin
 
Posts: 1781
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:29 pm
Location: Broomfield CO

Next

Return to Fantastic Finds

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 13 guests