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You Can Capture Your Own Las Vegas Bandits

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<i> Merin is a New York City free-lance writer</i>

All the glitter and gaming and glamour in this neon city quicken the heartbeat and excite the senses. That’s what Las Vegas is known for, and no other city so captures its essence in its offering of collectibles and souvenirs.

You can take home some Las Vegas excitement with an unusual selection of memorabilia or kitsch, ranging from vintage slot machines to light-up earrings or bow ties that flicker like The Strip.

For vintage gaming devices and a glimpse into Las Vegas’ colorful history, visit A-1 Casino Collectables, 2240 Paradise Road. This is one of the world’s best sources for own-your-own slot machines and other gaming memorabilia. A-1 is a division of International Game Technology, a major manufacturer of contemporary slots that accepts vintage machines in trade for new ones and resells the antiques at the shop.

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Usually about 100 machines are for sale on the floor, with more available in the warehouse. There are three categories of slots: all-mechanical models date from the 1900s, electro-mechanical types were introduced by Bally in the 1970s and contemporary computerized video poker players are made by International Game Technology.

Prospective buyers are allowed to try out the various vintage machines, using the company’s pennies or 5, 10 or 25-cent coins, or dollar tokens, which are presented in small cups that look like miniature versions of coin containers used in the casinos. As with any Vegas grub stake, all borrowed coins must be returned--along with any winnings--to the company cash register.

A-1, which opened in 1987, is as much a museum as it is a shop. One of the advantages of a visit is learning more about the history of gaming and the workings of the slot machines. In decoration and themes the machines reflect events and conditions, and their technology is typical for the years when the machines were made.

For example, machines made during the 1930s reflect Depression-era conditions and values. Penny and nickel machines were prevalent, and enticed players with the promise of a fistful of coins prominently displayed behind glass reinforced with chicken wire.

A 1935 Watling slot machine ($3,295) is semi-disguised as a gum ball machine. Put a penny in the slot and collect a wad of gum, before pulling the handle for your chance to win the jackpot. During the Depression 10 or 20 pennies were preferable to one, and this gum ball machine was particularly popular with people who would otherwise shun gaming.

The notorious one-armed bandit exists in an Old Reno Aristocrat slot machine that is encased in a larger-than-life-size, hand-carved wooden cowboy. The figure stands six feet tall. This “bandit” has two arms--one functions as the machine’s lever, the other is stationary, with the hand resting on the cowboy’s gun holster. It was made in 1949, takes a quarter and pays 20 quarters for straight bars.

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A Mills Little Perfection ($1,295) dating from the 1920s takes nickels, but offers no monetary payback. Instead, this slot, which sat in a saloon and was known as a trade stimulator, promised each winner a drink on the house.

A-1’s selection of fully mechanical slot machines sell for between $2,000 and $5,000, on average. Bally’s electro-mechanical slots, introduced during the 1970s, usually cost less than $1,000. In addition to greater ease in pulling the machine’s arm or handle, the Bally slot features a large interior hopper that automatically counts out winnings and ceremoniously pays out coins with clanking sounds and flashing lights.

The newer computerized video slots sell for about $2,000. These mesmerizing machines deal poker hands and offer you one chance, by pushing buttons, to change your cards and beat the house.

One computerized video slot is called Gold Fever. It features a video miner digging for buried treasure. You choose the chamber he digs into and lead him to discover a pot of gold, a dragon or a devil. The graphics are terrific, but it’s unlikely that you’ll encounter this slot in many Vegas casinos, where game masters think that Gold Fever takes patrons too long to play.

A-1 also sells tables for blackjack and other games as well as books about gaming and slots, manuals for fixing slots, antique dice and a wide variety of cards and chips.

Each of the states has its own laws regulating ownership and use of slot machines. California, for example, allows residents to own slots predating 1956. New York allows slots predating 1941. In Nevada and Arizona, all slots are legal. A-1’s personnel are knowledgeable about these laws and will help you to buy a machine that’s allowable in your state. The company ships everywhere.

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If your budget doesn’t allow for high rolling on antique slots for souvenirs, cheaper facsimile machines as well as toy slots and specialty slots are sold at A-1 and throughout town. A good source is the gift shop at Caesars Palace, which offers about five varieties of inexpensive slots for between $30 and $80. Some of these accept and pay money, others simply spin wheels and make sounds or flash when three bars appear.

Blackjack and other gaming tables that have been converted into coffee tables (from about $2,000) or home bars (from about $2,400) are sold at Bally’s gift shop.

If you’ve exhausted your impulse for gaming, you can still take home some of Las Vegas’ pizazz and sparkle in the form of inexpensive light-up objects that are completely in keeping with Glitter Gulch and The Strip.

A large selection of sunglasses ($20 for adult sizes, $15 for kids’ sizes), visors ($10.50), earrings (in many styles and colors, $20 to $30), headbands ($10.50), bow ties (in red or black satin, $10.50), masks ($10.50) and yo-yos ($6.50) that blink perpetually with tiny red, blue, yellow and/or green lights, are sold by the candy and cigarette girls that circulate through the casinos and cabarets.

There are also sweat shirts (about $50) featuring flickering Las Vegas marquees, plus dice, cats and cactus plants. The lights are controlled by tiny insulated batteries, and are perfectly safe and even washable. Marshall Rousso shops, at Caesars Palace and in several other hotel arcades, has a good selection.

Light-up sweat shirts in children’s sizes (about $50) show spooky monsterlike creatures, cats or other animals with glowing eyes, and are available in the Toy Store, with branches at Caesars Palace and other hotel arcades.

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If flashing lights on wearables seem to you to be tasteless rather than amusing, local chocolatier Ethel M’s souvenir selection, called “A Taste of Las Vegas” ($30 for two pounds), might better suit your appetite. The selection of liquor-filled chocolates, plus coconuts, caramels, pecan patties, nuts, almond butter crunch and other delectables is cleverly packaged so that a double strip of individually wrapped candies, in brightly colored pieces of foil, winds across the box that’s otherwise filled with dark and milk chocolates. It is very pretty and looks very much like a nighttime overview of The Strip.

“A Taste of Las Vegas” is sold at a dozen Ethel M shops in hotels (Flamingo Hilton, Stardust, Holiday Inn, Tropicana and others) and throughout Las Vegas, but the factory outlet (on Sunset Road, just east of Green Valley on the outskirts of Las Vegas; call 702-458-8864 for exact directions) offers free samples, as well as a tour that shows how chocolates are made.

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