Bridge playing slot machine

[coppinpr]

Anyone know anything about this slot machine? All I can find out is it's dated about 1938.

[badpenny]

It's one of those early slot machines that when you stood in front of it you started posing like Noel Coward and saying things like "Wot Wot?"

[pennymachines]

Well, I'm intrigued. Apparently computers mastered bridge in the 1990s, so what did this colossus contain? Two professional bridge players?

An automatic Bridge Playing machine. The (human) player inserts a coin, is shown his own hand and the dummy's, and plays by inserting plugs in holes representing the cards. Date: 1937

[andy d]

This is the information on the verso of the card:

Players of Bridge may now indulge in their favorite pastime with the aid of an automatic bridge playing machine which is a marvel of mechanical ingenuity. On dropping a coin into the slot, the players hand and also dummy's appear as lighted symbols in the central panel. The player is automatically told his contract, and plays each "Card" by inserting a plug in a hole adjacent to the symbol. His imaginary opponents respond by playing cards, whose illuminated symbols appear in the side panels. Tricks are recorded in the lower window. The machine contains a number of selected hands, each of which the player can win if he plays correctly.

Churchman's Cigarette's - Modern Wonders (1938)

[pennymachines]

Fascinating! Surely there must be a patent?