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Will it be American Pharoah, Always Dreaming, or I'll Have Another in the lead? Countertop horse racing games were the earliest coin-operated gambling devices. Simply constructed and easy to operate, racing games converted kinetic energy from a spring-driven shaft and clockwork mechanism propelling horses around a circular race course. In the 1880s, the Excelsior Race Track Company of Chicago offered a coin-operated countertop model in various sizes. In 1933, H.C. Evans and Company manufactured Saratoga Sweepstakes, a mechanically innovative game with horses that passed and re-passed each other at varying speeds. All objects are courtesy of Joe Welch American Antique Museum in San Bruno, California. "The Automatic Age: Coin-Operated Machines" is on display, pre-security, in the International Terminal. http://bit.ly/CoinOperated This image was posted on April 11, 2018.

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