Mills "Hoke" Snake bandit
Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 9:21 pm
Ive just added this machine to the mills page on the www.penny-arcade.info slot site. I had never read about it or seen one before. It is extremely rare, the last one sold went for $60,000. The additional mechanics were invented by Harry Hoke and the machine is known as a Hoke Snake. The idea was yet another attempt to fool the gambling laws into thinking the machine was a game of skill. On getting a winner the final "click" of the cycle that releases the slides will not happen until a steel ball is "pitched" into the mouth of the snake (ball catcher) at the top of the machine. Made 1936-38. One can be seen in the strangely situated slot machine museum in San Francisco air port.