Casino

The Casino pinball machine, manufactured by Indoor Games of America, Inc. of Cincinnati, Ohio in February 1932, is an early artifact from the first years of commercial pinball. Its pure mechanical design and gameplay features reflect the novelty this style of game offered players at the dawn of the industry, blending pinball mechanics with a cards/gambling theme.

The machine's gameplay centers on 10 balls released for just five cents, with the manufacturer touting the ability for two players to compete using five balls apiece of two different colors, while noting that any number of people could actually play. The Casino's cabinet, described by the manufacturer as an 'exclusive design' by a Mr. A. L. Yund, is finished in walnut and measures 47 inches long, 23 inches wide, and 34 inches high; the game retailed for $165 when new.

Indoor Games of America appears to have made only this one game, according to the Encyclopedia of Pinball. Contemporary Billboard ads show that by April 1932 the company's entire factory output had been bought up cheaply by Sicking Mfg. Co., and stock dwindled rapidly through May — evidence that Indoor Games of America had priced Casino too high for the market and folded shortly after release. This brief, cautionary history makes Casino a notable case study in the boom-and-bust economics of the earliest pinball manufacturers.