PAMCO Handicap

The PAMCO Handicap is an early electro-mechanical payout machine from the Pacific Amusement Manufacturing Company (trade name PAMCO) of Chicago, Illinois, released in January 1936. PAMCO operated from 1932 to 1937, and Handicap belongs to the wave of horse racing-themed games that were popular in the mid-1930s coin-operated amusement trade.

As a payout machine, Handicap offered gamblers-style play rather than modern pinball action. Each game gave the player 10 balls, and the machine was advertised as measuring 42 inches long and 21 inches wide. Like all games of its era, it predates flippers, relying instead on the launch of the ball and the layout of the playfield to determine results.

With its horse racing theme and payout mechanism, the PAMCO Handicap offers a glimpse into the era when pinball-style games and wagering devices overlapped. Detailed design and production information is scarce, but the machine remains an interesting artifact of the 1930s Chicago coin-op industry for collectors and historians.