Rise of the Café Slot culture

[treefrog]

Found this interesting article from June 1963, where the growth of slot machines throughout the cafés and food outlets in the early 60s was having an impact on café's business such that they could see the profits were greater than making teas or bacon rolls, by using the space for wall machines and pintables and replacing the chef

[coppinpr]

In 1971 I was buying old pinballs and working on them for my own use and a friend of mine who worked in a recording studio in London asked me if I could put one into the lounge in the recording studio where the roadies and girlfriends hang out while the bands were recording, mostly all night. I put one in on a 50/50 basis with the owners. We put it in on a Monday, Tuesday they called me to say it had broken down already. I shot up there only to find there was so much money in it the coins had overflowed not only the coin box but the front end of the machine and shorted out the electrics. Me, my wife, my friend and his wife went to a top West End restaurant then went to see a show, and paid for it all in sixpences !!!!