Barrel O’ Fun ‘61

The Barrel O' Fun '61 is an electro-mechanical bingo machine from Bally Manufacturing Corporation, designed by Don Hooker as a follow-up to the previous year's Barrel O' Fun. Bingo machines are a distinct, flipperless genre in which players shoot balls into a field of trap holes, aiming to complete lines on bingo-style cards displayed on the backglass. Released during the heyday of Bally's bingo business, the Barrel O' Fun '61 carries a cheerful Amusement Park - Carnival theme.

The machine features 25 trap holes and six bingo cards, with a six-coin maximum: inserting additional coins activates more cards and scoring possibilities, a hallmark of the bingo format. Unlike many other Bally machines of the period, the backglass does not carry the 'Bally' logo.

This is the Free Play (replay) model of the game; the non-replay version was sold as Bally's 1961 'Fun Spot '61'. As part of Bally's long line of carnival-themed bingos, the Barrel O' Fun '61 offers collectors a glimpse into a lucrative side of the coin-op industry that ran parallel to flipper pinball for decades.