Lincoln Fields

Lincoln Fields is not a pinball machine -- it's a console slot machine manufactured by Bally Manufacturing Corporation, dated November 1, 1937, with a horse racing theme. As Bally's Model 196, it offered 5-cent, multiple-coin play typical of the console slot machines of the era.

At an operator's option, Lincoln Fields could be purchased with a 'Skill Feature' -- a small captive-ball playfield reminiscent of pinball mechanics -- added specifically to introduce an element of skill and help the game skirt local gambling ordinances that targeted pure games of chance.

Specific details of the machine's artwork are not well documented, though its horse racing theme reflects the popularity of racing-adjacent gambling devices in the 1930s. As an early Bally product blending slot-machine mechanics with a pinball-like skill feature, Lincoln Fields is a notable artifact of the legal gray areas coin-op manufacturers navigated during the era.