Confiscated Gambling Equipment Illegal
gambling operations have been a target of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation
(KBI) since its beginning in 1939.
For decades, slot machines were absolutely illegal in Kansas. Recent changes in state law allow slots in Native American casinos, and private individuals may own antique slot machines manufactured before 1950. 
The slots pictured here were confiscated and held as evidence by the KBI. They were transferred to the collection of the Kansas Museum of History. Both were manufactured by Mills Industries, Incorporated, of Chicago. The ten-cent machine (pictured at left) dates from 1948. The five-cent slot (right) is a "Black Cherry," the first new model introduced by Mills as production resumed after World War II. This particular slot machine was confiscated by KBI agents at the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) Hall in Belleville, Kansas, in 1972. For more information on gambling in Kansas, see the online exhibit, Sinners and Saints: Vice and Reform in Kansas.
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