Unusual Rol-A-Top Slot Machine Bug Sighting

Unusual Weighted Percentage Device Found On A Watling Rol-A-Top Mechanism

Earlier this year I posted some information about antique slot machine percentage devices or more commonly known as “bugs”.  The article was titled Bugs In My Antique Slot Machine. I followed that up with a short update on a Mills Novelty slot machine bug we found in a machine a few days after writing that article.

Since that time, we have found numerous other bugs in machines we have gotten in for repair and restoration. Most of them are a similar configuration and do the same job – preventing one of the reels from stopping on the jackpot symbol.

Watling Rol-A-Top Restored By Nations Attic

Last week I did run across a rather unusual percentage device on a Watling Rol-A-Top we were restoring. As shown in the photo above, this device bolted to the outer ring of the reel. While this did not prevent the reel from stopping on the jackpot symbol, it did add quite a bit of weight to one section of the reel. This weight would cause the reel to want to stop in an area where the jackpot symbols were not located. This sly device was not fool proof but it still did the job of throwing off the number of times it would land on a jackpot symbol.

It should also be noted that it appears Watling went out of their way to provide pre-drilled spots on both the reel tins and inner reel stops. These pre drilled holes made it very easy to install a bug in seconds . Generally the other slot machine manufactures would never put these on their machines but Watling seems to have rolled out the red carpet for percentage device installation. Watling slot machines, specifically Rol-A-Top’s, are notorious for having hundreds of different small and large changes to the inside and outside of their machines. While these “bug holes” may not be in your Rol-A-Top, I’m sure others out there have some equally interestingly unique features!  Don - Nations Attic