Citation

The Citation, manufactured by Bally in October 1948, is an electro-mechanical one-ball horserace game with a horse racing theme. Its playfield features an unusually large array of 31 trap holes along with 4 passive bumpers, and a Skill Lane option was offered for 5-ball jurisdictions, letting Bally tailor the game to local regulations.

Citation is closely related to Bally's payout games of the era: the payout version of this same game was released as Bally's 1948 'Lexington'. Although Bally's own documentation lists a production release date of February 1949, trade press from October 1948 shows distributors advertising the game for immediate delivery, and Billboard and Cash Box articles from that month report that Citation and Lexington were already in full production.

While the designer of Citation is not documented, the game is a notable example of the one-ball horserace genre that was a major part of Bally's business in the late 1940s, making it an interesting piece for collectors of that era.