Big Casino

Big Casino, manufactured by Chicago Coin Machine Manufacturing Company in February 1936, is an early electro-mechanical one-ball payout machine built around a casino/gambling theme. It represents the pre-flipper era of pinball, when games centered on ball placement and payout odds rather than flipper-based shot-making.

The machine was advertised as a deluxe model with an unusually large 24-by-50-inch cabinet for its era, and Chicago Coin's records confirm 157 units produced, making it a scarce survivor today. As a one-ball payout game, scoring and outcomes were determined largely by where the ball landed rather than by any skill-based shot mechanics.

Big Casino's design leaned into the glamorous atmosphere of 1930s casino gambling, though specific details about its artwork and designer have not survived in available documentation. Its historical significance lies in representing the one-ball payout category of early EM machines, a once-common but now largely vanished branch of pinball history.