Bally slot machines

Who makes Bally slot machines today?

Bally is a brand of Light & Wonder, the US gaming supplier that was called Scientific Games until 2022. Light & Wonder bought Bally Technologies in November 2014 and also owns the Williams (WMS) brand and the British maker Barcrest. Its UK licences sit with companies such as LNW Gaming UK Limited, Gambling Commission account 66104.

The Bally name has been split. The rights to use it for casinos went to Twin River Worldwide Holdings, which renamed itself Bally's Corporation in October 2020. That company runs casinos and online brands and is separate from the machine maker. This page is about the machines; the manufacturers hub covers other makers.

From Ballyhoo pinball to Bally slot machines

Raymond Moloney founded the company on 10 January 1932 in Chicago. Its parent, Lion Manufacturing, set it up to make pinball games, and it took its name from its first, Ballyhoo. In the late 1930s Moloney moved into gambling equipment and improved on the mechanical slot machines of the day, according to Wikipedia's Bally Manufacturing history (opens in a new tab). During the Second World War the factory turned to munitions and aircraft parts.

In 1940 Bally built High Hand, a draw-poker machine whose construction is described as an early step towards electromechanical design. Chicago was already the centre of American coin-op making; the Mills Novelty Company had built mechanical bell machines there since the turn of the century.

Money Honey: Bally's electromechanical slot machine

Money Honey is the machine that made Bally's name in slots. It is described as the first fully electromechanical slot machine: electric motors and switches handled jobs that springs and levers had done on earlier mechanical bells. Its headline feature was an automatic payout of up to 500 coins from a hopper, far more than a mechanical machine could pay.

It still had a cranked lever and was played standing up, according to a Las Vegas Advisor answer on the subject. The lever is why slots kept the one-armed bandit nickname long after it stopped mattering mechanically.

1. The player inserts a coin and pulls the lever.
2. The reels spin and come to rest.
3. The machine's electrical circuitry, rather than a purely mechanical payout linkage, registers which symbols sit on the line.
4. If the combination pays, a motor drives the hopper to count out coins automatically, up to 500.
5. The machine resets for the next coin.

Sources disagree on two points. Wikipedia's slot machine article and a Paris Review essay date Money Honey to 1963, while Wikipedia's Bally article and the Las Vegas Advisor give 1964. Wikipedia also calls its hopper 'bottomless', whereas the Las Vegas Advisor says it was the first with a hopper and that bottomless hoppers came later.

Bally slot machines in the 1960s and 1970s

Money Honey's large automatic payouts were a step change, and Bally's electromechanical machines took over the market. Wikipedia states that by the end of the 1960s Bally held over 90% of the worldwide slot machine market. Rivals such as the Mills family's TJM Corporation failed to compete with Bally's electromechanical models.

The company spread out. It bought Midway Manufacturing, an amusement game maker in Schiller Park, Illinois, in 1969. In 1974 it bought the German machine maker Guenter Wulff-Apparatebau, renamed Bally Wulff, which it spun off in 1991. On 29 December 1979 it opened the Park Place Casino and Hotel in Atlantic City.

How the Bally slot machine business changed hands

The corporate history is tangled, because the slot business and the rest of Bally parted ways in the 1990s. This table follows the slot machines.

The 1996 deal is covered in Wikipedia's Bally Technologies article (opens in a new tab), and the 2014 purchase and 2022 rename in its Scientific Games and Light & Wonder article (opens in a new tab).

Bally and Williams: rivals, then siblings

Bally and Williams crossed paths twice. In 1988 Bally sold its Bally/Midway amusement arm to Williams, which later made pinball tables under the Bally label. Then Scientific Games bought WMS in October 2013 and Bally Technologies in November 2014, putting both slot brands under one roof. Our Williams slot machines page tells the other half.

Bally slot machines online: 88 Fortunes

Light & Wonder publishes some Bally-branded games online. One with checked figures is 88 Fortunes, a 2016 Asian-themed game listed under Light & Wonder (Bally).

At 96% RTP, 100 spins at 50p is £50 staked and the long-run average cost is £2, though high volatility means a session can swing far either way. At the £2 cap for 18 to 24-year-olds, 100 spins is £200 staked and £8 average cost; at the £5 cap for over-25s, £500 staked and £20. Check the game's help screen for the RTP version a casino runs. For more on the theme, see Asian-themed slot machines.

Bally machines and UK rules

Money Honey-style payouts of hundreds of coins are not what British venues offer. A Bally-designed machine in a UK casino would be a Category B1 machine at most, with a £5 stake and £10,000 prize limit. In a betting shop, B2 and B3 machines are limited to £2 a game and £500 prizes. Our page on UK slot machine categories has the full list. Which Bally cabinets are installed in British venues is not confirmed in sources we checked.

Bally slot machine myths

• Old electromechanical machines were not easier to beat. Their payout was set by reel design, just as modern returns are set by software.
• Pulling the lever harder or softer on a lever machine did not change the result in any way a player could use.
• A modern Bally game does not remember your last spin. Each result comes from the random number generator.
• The Bally's casino brand and Bally machines are different businesses; one does not set the other's payouts.

Where to play Bally-style slots online in the UK

Light & Wonder games, including some Bally titles, appear at many UK casinos, but no source confirms which of our partners carry them, and lobbies change. Search the casino's games list for the title before you deposit.

Our partner offers, all 18+ with terms applying: Coral lets new players bet £10 on slots to receive 100 free spins (10p each, selected games, 48 hours to accept, 7 days to use, no wagering on winnings). Ladbrokes gives new customers who play £10 on slots 50 free spins daily for 10 days, up to 500, at 10p each with no wagering. PlayOJO offers 80 no-wagering free spins on Big Bass Bonanza, 10p each, for a first deposit of at least £10. Coral and Ladbrokes belong to the same operator, so read the terms. See our casinos page for licence details.

18+. Gambling should be entertainment that costs money, not a way to make it. Decide a budget before you play: plan a slot budget. Free, confidential help: National Gambling Helpline 0808 8020 133.