A great EM pin. It has 3 ball saves but it’s still hard having the spinners throw you off.

Lots of great features in this game. Love the playfield spinning discs, and the ball kicker on the left lane. Great player. Only Chicago Coin game that I own.

Got to play one of these (the only one I've ever seen) out at the Pinball Hall of Fame.

Super fun game, I really like the spinning disc feature.

The game is harder than it looks. At first glance, you think the designers looked to “one up” Bally by adding two spinners - which they did - but there’s a lot more here than meets the eye. A gate that returns your ball to you, an out lane kickback that saves your ball and a ball saving center post (which I like better than zipper flippers) make this game look like it could go one forever - until you play it. The top kickout hole with a sequenced shot makes it hard to light up the center yellow pop bumper for 1,000 points a hit. (You have to light up the red and blue ones first with the same ball to activate it). All in all, a great game with a whimsical theme and although the Playfield itself isn’t a gorgeous piece of pinball art like Fireball, the back glass more than makes up for it! The chimes with wooden blocks are a nice touch too and produce some nice mellow tones.

Last but not least, the ball counter is pretty neat and the vinyl that covers it is done exactly like a backglass. It never seen anything like it on any other machine. Most counters are integrated into the backglass whereas this one is on the apron. Pretty cool concept but the vinyl flakes out unfortunately.

I have noticed how much this deck looks like Bally’s Vampire. Since Vampire is older, I have to believe it provided significant inspiration. Kind of a merger between Fireball and Vampire less a few things.

I picked up my project Casino in a bulk buy. Unfortunately, it's still on the todo list, but I just recently got a chance to play this title for the first time at the Pinball Hall of Fame (PHOF) in Vegas. My first reaction is that I really need to get mine working (although I doubt it will ever look as nice as the one at PHOF). I was afraid that the dual spinning discs would make this game a luck box, but fortunately that was not my experience at all. The discs do change the trajectory, but I felt it was largely predicable and controllable with skilled nudging.

Is this the only game combining a center up-post, a left outlane kickback, and a right-outlane save gate? It sounds unfair, but even with all three active, the "Down Post" rollovers are strategically positioned so that you can never get too comfortable. Also, I think the copy at PHOF was leaving the ball gate open after use, but my understanding is that it should reset after use and you would need to re-open it, which seems more balanced to me.

Now, let's get to the elephant in the room. The handwritten description card at PHOF calls Casino (June 1972) the "poor-man's" Fireball (February 1972). I feel it is unfair to compare the two, but let's discuss. Likely, the dual spinning discs were at least inspired by Fireball's single spinning disc, but so were many games since. Casino then goes over the top with the above mentioned trio of ball save mechanisms. Another similarity is three pop bumpers, but that doesn't exactly break any new ground. However, Casino falls short of Fireball in regards to multiball (nope), captive ball (nope), devilish skill shot (nope), zipper flippers (of course not), and iconic theme (although Casino's artwork and especially the backglass is charming in it's own way, it simply cannot compete here with Fireball). Note that with no multiball there is also no ball stealing in Casino which may give it a multiplayer edge in some views. Casino may also come out on top when considering value as Fireball is likely north of $2K for a decent example and I would guess the much rarer Casino (with 10% of Fireball's owner numbers on Pinside) to go for half or possibly less.

In short, Casino should be appreciated on it's own. It's a solid entry from a company with a long history in pinball, but by this point in time was certainly a second-tier pinball manufacturer that dabbled in pinball when compared to the quantity of titles being shipped by Bally, Williams, and Gottlieb and in less than five years would become Stern. If you get a chance to play one in good condition, it is certainly worth your time. I'll update when I have mine functional, but I feel this game should not be overlooked.

I picked up this game in a bulk buy and I was intrigued by how little information there was on it. After replacing the fuse holders it fired up and I have been pleasantly surprised.

The game is really smooth for being an EM. I am not a big EM fan, but of the 3 that I own this is my favorite. The backglass looks great lit up in a dark room. The spinning wheels on the playfield are a nice twist to an otherwise rather standard EM layout.

With the rarity of these guys I would highly recommend it to EM fans and casual fans alike.

This game is a treasure, it appears to be rare and few are around (I think) but for an EM machine of its time its awesome, it has that cool ball saver, the side drain saver, and the side drain gate, as well as the 2 spinning disks on the mid playfield that remind me of fireball, the artwork is stunning for this machine, if you get one don't let it go, you'll have a hell of a time getting another one, definately a classic!