In 1923 writer W.B. Gibson (Walter Gibson! Author of The Shadow!) began a column called BUNCO GAMES TO BEWARE OF. He tapped his own carnival experience to explain the 'gamester' ruses that allows for carnival / fair arcade games to be especially profitable.
These were syndicated in newspapers around the USA through 1923-1925. I have 48 of these articles collected here. (Some of the later prints of them include their "number" in the series, but only 3 have ever had an order number indicated.)
At the bottom of this post I will include more articles on Walter Gibson and include 2 more introductory advertisements for the series.
I found this series while researching tamakorogashi, and a shady American carnival variant (that was based on Japanese Rolling Ball's success) is listed below as "Japanese Roll-Down".
Most of these games survived many decades, if not a whole century. Lots of them are purely mechanical gimmicks but some even highlight the new-fangled ELECTRICITY gimmicks, the start of the electro-mechanical arcade era.
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The Wheel Of Chance
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The following 49 games are included here. Open any image in a new window to assist in reading.
Airplane Race
Aunt Sarah's Clothes Line
Automatic Bowling Alley
Ball and Cone
Balloon Game
Baseball Rack
Beehive
Big Tom
Candy Wheel
Carnival Clock
Carnival Roulette
Cats On The Rack
Cigaret Shooting Gallery
Coin and the Tenpin
Country Store Wheel
Devil's Bowling Alley
Drop Case
English Pool*
Fish Pond
Flashing Flag
Gravitation Ball Game
Hand Striker
High Striker
Hoop Tossing
Hurdle Ladder
Japanese Roll-Down
Knife Rack
Marble Rolldown
Monkey Slats
Percentage Spindle
Picking Out The Colors
Pop 'Em In
Race Course
Red White & Blue
Roll-A-Race
Rolling Log Faro
Roly-Poly
Shell Game
Shooting Gallery
Silver Arrow
Spotting The Spot
String Game
Swinging Ball
Three Card Monte
Three Pin Game
Throwing Darts
Watch La
Wheel of Chance
Whirling Spindle
*As far as I know, there is only one article missing, on English Pool. In it's wake, I have included another article by Gibson that describes English Pool.
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| The Airplane Race |
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| Aunt Sarah's Clothes Line |
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| Automatic Bowling Alley |
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| The Ball and the Cone |
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| The Balloon Game |
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| The Baseball Rack |
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The Beehive
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Big Tom
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| The Candy Wheel |
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The Carnival Clock
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| Carnival Roulette |
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| The Cats on the Rack |
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| The Cigaret Shooting Gallery |
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| The Coin and the Tenpin |
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| The Country Store Wheel |
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| The Devil's Bowling Alley |
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| The Drop Case |
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English Pool is described in this 1926 article
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| The Fish Pond |
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| The Flashing Flag |
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| The Gravitation Ball Game |
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| The Hand Striker |
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| The High-Striker |
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| Hoop Tossing |
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| The Hurdle Ladder |
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The Japanese Roll-Down
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The Knife Rack
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The Marble Roll Down
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Monkey Slats
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The Percentage Spindle
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Picking Out The Colors
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Pop-Em-In!
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The Race Course
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Red, White and Blue
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Roll-a-Race
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Rolling Log Faro
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Roly-Poly
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The Shell Game
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Shooting Gallery
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The Silver Arrow
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Spotting The Spot
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The String Game
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The Swinging Ball
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Three Card Monte
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The Three Pin Game
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Throwing Darts
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Watch La
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The Wheel Of Chance
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The Whirling Spindle
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2 more introductory advertisements:
Some articles on Gibson:
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| 1978-07-01 - The Tampa Times |
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| 1981-06-08 - The Morning Call |
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