The last bingo on location in the St. Louis area was a Can-Can at Eat-Rite Diner in downtown St. Louis that was taken out two years ago. I still see a few now and then around the country.

Here in Belgium many are still on location.. almost every cafe has one or more.

I would guess and say somewhere in PA they may be still operating bingos on route. Mostly 6 card games perhaps?

If one was on route today, would it be considered a gambling machine? If it worked the way it was intended. That would limit (I would think?) where in the US it could be on route. But I’m WI they can do gambling machines like slots etc at bars, but in MN only pull tabs in bars and gambling at certain locations that are approved.

If the machine was altered for free play or whatever I assume it could be for amusement only then, and be fine. Very interesting topic..

A Shell gas station in Elko, Nevada had a Bally Bingo with payout mechanism less than five years ago.

I could literally get in my car and drive for two hours to Belgium and then go to any small town and start hunting. They are not in every cafe, but you don't have to walk far to find one or two. They are electronic games built in Belgium. You may legally play them for cash.

Alex Wilms and his son Freddy created a bingo empire for Bally Continental in Belgium. Eventually spinning it off into their own Company.

Not in operating condition, but i know a guy down south here in Sweden that have a storeroom with 7-8 old bingo games lined up in various states of repair-need, that he tried to sell me when i was there with a friend looking for spare legs.

Been over 30 years since the last billards hall which had 3 dime bingo machines in my city. Gambling got legalised and killed off pinball & video on location. Now every bar is a mini casino sucking in big dollars.

Yes. Only very new models.
Laws change every few years and operators have to invest in new machines that are legal.

I'm not keeping track of the laws in detail. if I remember correct, around 15 years ago laws changed and a lot of machines weren't legal anymore.
Since the last 10 years (or more) they have a huge lcd screen in the backbox, no more lightbulbs. Similar to what JJP has but it was implemented years earlier.
They also have a mobile phone built in. Game operation is transmitted to the state which keeps track of what machines have permits and what they earn.

A yearly license to operate a bingo costs 3500-4000 euro (depending on location) per machine.
I believe (but it can be for another type of gambling machine) legally the losses are limited to 70 euro an hour.

So compared to pinball where you can play a game for 1 euro, bingo machines are big money.
Real big gambling money, pinball is peanuts for them.

I've heard a lot of interesting stories from older operators I know..
Some big operators own dozens of locations. Having one or two machines can pay enought for the mortgage to buy the building..
Being the home owner / renting the bar is a way to make sure their machines stay in a good earning location and a competitor can't persuade the bar owner..
Even heard from an operator which was caught cheating in some way by the bar owner. A few hours later the op came back to the bar, he had just bought the whole building and the bar owner shouldn't complain or get kicked out..

Great information aeneas.....thanks for sharing.

I'd watch a TV show drama based on these bingo operators.

Slightly off topic. A friend of mine has relocated to Utrecht, Netherlands, and was house hunting a few days ago. One of the properties they viewed had this well-equipped games room. Sadly she only took this one pic. I recognise the game on the left but not the other one.

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And she forgot to ask whether the games came with the house.

Hello Bingoers - I've had such fun learning about these bingos. I have fully saved two - High Flyer and Dixieland from potential dumps in PA. I now have two kids headed to college and hope to find good homes. The third machine is almost saved. Nick B has done a ton of work for me to get these up and running. He suggested I hunt around Pinside to see if anyone wants to buy my machines. Let me know. Not sure if these are fit to be "out in the wild" but why not? I could arrange to send one to Pinslot in Duisburg I suppose !? Shipping would probably be more than the games are worth, bummer.

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Wow, that's amazing! A bunch of slots, what looks to be a coin pusher, and are those wall-mounted games or just framed things?

Definitely wall mounted slot machines (Rototrons).

Yupp, German slots often have flat discs instead of reels so the are flatter than classic one arm bandits. You can easily hang then on the wall.

Did you see this video yet? Bingo getting played in the wild!

There is a bar a 5 minute walk from my house that had one the last time I was there about 8 years ago. I should stop by and see if it's still there. Yes they paid out.

Did you see this video yet?

Indeed I did, Vic.

I used to visit a Pinhead friend living near Brussels from time to time. We usually went out pinball hunting, which was quite difficult. To raise our spirits we often played a few games of bingo. I can confirm that they devour Euros at an alarming rate. If we had ever won, I’m sure we would have been paid. The annual license fee on those games was €1500. This was about 2005.

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Here's a few photos of an early Solid-State
Bally-Wulff Double Crown Super 2 wall mounted slot machine that shows the stepper motor controlled discs.

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I found some in Antwerp, very modern, pre loaded with about a dozen different games.

Also, here's a pic of the Bally Wulff " Bally's Dice" wall mounted slot machine.
Trivia, the dice mechanisms were also exported to the USA and used in Bally Gaming's "Roll the Dice" participation-based slot machines.

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Does the playfield on Doppel Krone and Wurfel have 25 holes? can you send picture of playfield?

They're just wall-mounted slots, and not bingos.