Red Arrow (payout model)

The Red Arrow is a rare and obscure device from J. H. Keeney and Company Incorporated of Chicago, a major manufacturer of coin-operated games from the 1930s through the 1960s. Despite its pinball-like playfield styling, this is not a pinball machine but a payout "upright" (also called a "flasher type" slot machine) built around an archery theme. This particular version was made for export, distinguished from the domestic non-payout 1960 Keeney 'Red Arrow' by a different backglass.

The game is notable chiefly for its Panascope display, a feature shared with several other Keeney upright games of the era. Little else is documented about the Red Arrow; no exact production date has been confirmed, and the only surviving reference is a period sales flyer. That flyer touted the advantage of a "Club" machine (which paid a jackpot) over a "Pub" machine (limited to a small cash or token payout), reflecting the coin-op gambling regulations of the time.

With so little documentation surviving, the Red Arrow remains something of a mystery even to specialists in vintage coin-op history, but it stands as an interesting example of the archery-and-payout upright genre Keeney produced alongside its pinball line.