Bally Technologies, Inc. is a slot game design and manufacturing company that has grown through a series of mergers and acquisitions. The company was acquired by Scientific Games in 2014 butcontinues to operate as a separate unit.
The original Bally Manufacturing Company was established in 1932 as a subsidiary of Lion Manufacturing to make pinball games, which were very popular at the time. Founder Raymond T. Moloney builtthe company into the leading pinball manufacturing operation in the nation and by the late 1930s turned his eye to the growing mechanical slot machine market. Although the company was integratedinto the US defense industry during the Second World War it resumed development and distribution of pinball and slot machine games immediately afterward.
Although a successful enterprise, Bally Manufacturing suffered two setbacks in the late 1950s.
Bally Technologies is one of the most popular and leading manufacturers of slot gaming machines, along with other gaming-based technology. It is located in Las Vegas in the state of Nevada. The company came into existence in 1968 and was initially known as Advanced Patent Technology.
Ray Moloney died in 1958, leaving no clear successor. Lion Manufacturing went bankrupt and Moloney’s heirs sold Bally Manufacturing to an investment group in 1963. The new leadership brought thefirst electromechanical slot machine, the “Money Honey”, to market in 1964. By the end of the 1960s the company controlled 90% of the world wide slot machine market, had become a publicly tradedcompany listed on the Nasdaq, and had acquired its first subsidiaries, Guenter Wulff-Apparatebau and Midway Manufacturing.
Despite these successes the company found itself facing inquiries in the United States and Australia over alleged connections to organized crime syndicates. CEO William T. O’Donnell eventuallyresigned as Bally worked to open its first casino in Atlantic City, NJ. Despite these issues Bally also launched a home computer product called the Bally Professional Arcade.
Although the home computer operation failed in the 1980s subsidiary Midway Manufacturing became a roaring success by manufacturing popular arcade games such as Space Invaders, Pac-Man, and Ms.Pac-Man. During the 1980s, fueled by profits from the arcade games, Bally purchased the Six Flags amusement park company and launched Bally Total Fitness as a health club division within thecompany. During the decade Bally also purchased the MGM Grand and several other casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
However, by 1988 the company’s rapid growth ruined its finances, forcing Bally to divest itself of its Bally-Midway, fitness club, and amusement park operations. Despite the sale of MidwayManufacturing Bally retained the Aladdin’s Castle game arcade chain and continued to manufacture fitness equipment.
List Of Bally Slot Machines
In the 1990s the newly rebranded Bally Entertainment Group continued to manufacture slot machines and operate casinos. Rival International Gaming Technologies was by this time dominating theworld slot machine market. By 1995 Bally had sold off the fitness manufacturing operations to Brunswick Corporation and the arcade business to Namco Cybertainment, Inc. In 1995, now focused onoperating casinos and manufacturing slot machines, Bally was acquired by Hilton Hotels Corporation and Alliance Gaming Corporation in separate buyouts that broke up the company; BallyEntertainment Group ceased to exist at this time.