Bowling Machine Ad, 1954

1954

Arthur R. Schultz of Ely, Nevada, who’ previously had held a gambling license for slot machines, asked then District Attorney of White Pine County, Jon R. Collins, to rule on whether or not a coin-operated bowling machine (think early version of Skee Ball) constituted a gambling device. Because the machine dispatched tickets that could win high scorers a turkey, Collins determined it in fact was gambling equipment.

Schultz, who apparently disliked the ruling, probably because he owned or wanted to invest in such a machine and didn’t want to pay gambling taxes on it, subsequently accosted Collins one day when he was walking to his office. When Collins refused to accompany Schultz into the alley, the gambler punched him in the nose.

Collins asked the Nevada Tax Commission, which then regulated gaming, to revoke Schultz’s gambling license. The agency members, however, said it was an issue for local authorities, not them. Further, they noted that pulling Schultz’s license was moot in that he wasn’t operating any gaming devices at the time.