Sega Retro

Hey, History Channel: I’m Calling You Out on Sega Slots!

So, I heard through forums member Donnyku that this week’s episode of the History Channel’s American Pickers featured an old Sega slot machine. “Maybe you could use the episode to get some pictures for the wiki,” he said.

C’mon, Donnyku. Like I’m going to turn down a fabulous opportunity to talk about old Sega items. When I go to the parts of the Internet that actually do talk about these things, it’s just me and a bunch of 60-year-old British men. I need to proselytize.

In this episode, the Pickers stop by Smitty’s Big Barn Antiques in Mayer, Ariz., and find a working Sega Mad Money slot machine. The owner, Smitty, mentions that it’s a 1940s slot machine, but hey, we’re Sega nerds. We know better than to take the word of one guy. Besides, the Mad Money is one of Service Games’ more interesting slot machines.

The Sega Mad Money was originally branded to highlight the popularity of the then-new Mad magazine, and featured the publication’s iconic Alfred E. Neuman on the machine’s attraction display. However, at this time, Service Games was a rather rogue company, and had not bothered to actually obtain the license for Mad‘s mascot. When Sega heard that Mad wanted to bring a lawsuit, the company decided to just sell the machine overseas to avoid any legal issues.

So, how did a machine that was never meant to be in America wind up in Mayer, Arizona, and with no Mad artwork on it?

Mayer is located about five hours southeast of Las Vegas. In the late 1950s, after Service Games was increasingly banned from U.S. military bases, the company decided to come back to America (where slot machines sales were legal once again) to try to sell to the domestic gaming industry, so they opened a small office in Las Vegas. Sega of Nevada, if you will. In order to sell in the American market, the infringing material would have to be removed, so the attraction showing various payouts instead makes sense.

(Trivia: the site of Service Games Nevada’s office today has an adult video store built on it.)

So, what does this mean for the actual date of this slot machine? Given that the machine would have to be distributed from that office, and given that the Mad Money shares many parts with the Sega Diamond 3 Star (manufactured in 1958 and sold in 1960), this slot machine is realistically dated somewhere between 1959 and 1962—a good 20 years off the owner’s guess. The Mad Money model continued to be popular for a while, though: Sega later manufactured two newer versions of the machine, and continued to sell it with the Mad branding overseas even after becoming Sega Enterprises.

At any rate, it’s a neat little slot machine. Check out the episode if you get the chance–I imagine it’ll be on rerun for a good while.

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14 Comments

  • Reply

    It’d be pretty cool if you got in contact with the owner of that slot machine and let him know how old it really is.

    • Reply

      Do you know what episode and season this was because Smitty is my grandpa

  • Reply

    So SEGA was in the arcade-ish (if slots could be considered part of the arcade, give me a better word if possible please) buisness for quite a while. Interesting…

  • Reply

    Yo, e-mail the show and get their facts straight.

  • Reply

    Very interesting. Can’t stand the Pickers though. Eastern Iowans make us central Iowans look bad and they don’t help.

  • Reply

    So is anyone going to notify the guy on the real age of his machine?

    • Reply

      I don’t really know of a way to. The only real way I have to contact the guy is through his realtor, and I’m not sure if such an inquiry is really appropriate when he’s just trying to sell everything.

  • Reply

    SS have I ever told you that you’re awesome?
    (brofive)

  • Reply

    I remember seeing one of these in a pub in Clapham Common, London. I think the pub is called The Alexandra. I’ve got a photo of it somewhere…

  • Reply

    I have a Mad Money with Alfred depicted on the sign above the machine. The money circle has been
    scraped off and a sticker with 10 placed to the side of it. I believe the circle originally had 6D on it, which would indicate that it came here from maybe England or another country. How it arrived in the States
    is a mystery to me, and I wonder just how many of them are available in the States. I wonder if the copyright law still applies.

  • Reply

    I am having problems tracking down parts. Any good leads?

    • Reply

      I’m also trying to obtain parts for my machine…any luck??

  • Reply

    I just got one and just started doing research on it . Any idea what it might be worth? It works just great

  • Reply

    A Diamond 3 Star makes a brief appearance in the 1964 movie Carry On Spying.

    http://pics.imcdb.org/2517/sega.jpg

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