Spinning Reels

Spinning Reels is an electro-mechanical payout machine produced by Mills Novelty Company in 1940. As a payout machine, it operated in the tradition of coin-operated devices that rewarded players with payouts rather than free games, a category distinct from the free-play and novelty pinball games of the same period.

Because it predates the 1947 introduction of the flipper, Spinning Reels would not have featured flippers; instead it relied on the gravity- and skill-based scoring elements typical of pre-flipper machines. Specific details of its layout and mechanisms are not well documented.

There is little known about the design, art, or theme of Spinning Reels beyond its classification as a single-player EM payout machine from Mills Novelty. As one of the company's outputs from this period, it remains of interest to historians researching the payout-machine segment of pinball's early history, though more research would be needed to characterize its distinctive features.