PA Has Had Slot Machines Before

It is not a well known fact that this is not Pennsylvania’s first foray into the world of slot machines – in fact many think that they have never had slot machines before. This is not true; really, they have had slot machines – just not legal ones.

During the late 1940’s and into the early 1950’s there were slot machines in many establishments. Your fraternal and private clubs had them, as did convenience stores and some other businesses. They were not legal slot machines, and there weren’t any laws on the books in PA legalizing the slot machines – so if someone had them they were breaking the law.

Near the middle of the 1950’s, Pennsylvania decided to clean up these illegal slot machines and the state police sent out men with dump trucks to actually go to each establishment and seize any and all slot machines. The men would go in and take them, and then just throw them in the back of the dump trucks.

They then took all of those slot machines and cleaned them out, and any money found would go into evidence. Then the slot machines were taken to the dump and smashed to bits by bulldozers. So that was the last of the illegal slot machines, or at least the ones the police knew about, until the law was passed two years ago legalizing them.

Back to Monthly Archive // Main Slot Machine News Index