William PietriOne of the fun/annoying things about starting a pinball museum is the number of historical rabbit holes that I get caught up in. Today it's how this 1936 pinball machine led me to what looks like an MLM scheme from the 1920s and 1930s. A scam that still works today! 🧵
Bally's Carom was part of the wave of pinball-ish machines that started in 1931, but they quickly veered into what at the time was legal ambiguity, but today is clearly seen as a gambling machine. Here's the Carom schematic, which makes clear that the operator can set the payout odds. Gambling! 100% gambling! 2/
Kevin Karhan 
@williampietri not just #gambling, but illegal #GameFixing by any halfway decent standard, because proper gambling machines have their odds hardwired / hardcoded with a certified RNG system.
- In fact #Gauselmann / #Merkur were once fined a hefty sum for having #rigged RNGs in #Germany...