Lights, camera, action — this is Casino from Chicago Coin, an electromechanical four-player wrapped in a show-business theme, designed by Albin Peters and Jerry Koci with art by the great Christian Marche. With reel scoring, it’s a characterful woodrail-era piece from one of the industry’s pioneering manufacturers, radiating glitzy stage-show glamour.
The layout is a well-appointed, player-friendly spread with a distinctive touch: two flippers, three pop bumpers, a pair of slingshots, five standup targets, four rollover buttons, two spinning discs, a kick-out hole, an up-post between the flippers, a left-outlane kickback, and a right-outlane ball return gate. Those two spinning discs are a genuinely unusual and eye-catching feature, adding dynamic, kinetic motion to the playfield, while the combination of a kickback, a return gate, and the center up-post gives a player real tools to fend off the drain. The five standups and four rollovers offer plenty of scoring to chase, all in service of the show-business theme.
This Chicago Coin Casino is a fine example of the company’s electromechanical craft and Marche’s showstopping artwork — and it’s worth noting that Williams built a different machine by the same name, so collectors should mind which Casino they’re chasing. Chicago Coin was one of the industry’s foundational manufacturers, and those twin spinning discs make this a distinctive play. For the collector who loves the golden age of EM pinball and its great artists, it’s a rewarding find. Work the spinning discs, use the up-post and gates to survive, and ride the standups. Some machines dazzle with an unusual mechanism, and this Chicago Coin show-biz classic does exactly that. Take the stage and drop a coin.