The Fortune-Telling Machines Banned
A Seattle judge rules that nickel-in-the-slot 'fortune-telling' devices are illegal gambling machines.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The days of the fortune-telling 'nickel in the slot machines' in Seattle are past, but it required a long and hard-fought battle before Judge Glasgow in the municipal court yesterday. The decision which abolishes the machines held in substance that when a man played the game, he did so for the purpose of winning money. The machines were a box about sixteen inches square by four thick. On the front is a disc with cards; a nickel is dropped in the slot and if the player is lucky, he hears a click and out comes two nickels or perhaps a check. If he gets the nickel in the wrong channel, the disc with the cards whirls around and shows the player’s 'fortune.' City Attorney Winestock claimed that although the machine was a mechanical device, it was intended for gambling. Attorneys for the defense argued there was no chance involved—a man either won money or got his fortune told. Judge Glasgow tested the machine himself: when he played, the pointer gave him advice: 'Stay at home nights.' Ultimately, the judge ruled that men played against the machine to win money, not to seek advice, and found the defendant guilty of conducting a gambling game.
“The judge thought over the case for a short time and then said that he was satisfied that when men played against that machine they were after money and not fortune telling.”
This ruling highlights a recurring tension in Seattle’s history: the civic struggle to classify emerging technologies and amusements. Just as the city grappled with slot machines in 1894, contemporary debates often center on how new platforms—from digital gambling to gig economy apps—should be regulated as 'vice' or 'utility'.
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