Harr was always fascinated with any kind of machine. '(The government) came in and got axes and they chopped them up.' 'They told me that they were rare ,' he said, 'that you couldn't find them anymore, because they were all destroyed.' But he remembers his parents, Shirley and Johnny Harr, talking about them. Harr is too young to remember when slot machines were common in Montana. One license is from 1949 and, next to it, the machine's license for 1950. He showed us two such licenses stuck on one machine. Those stickers are licenses from the Montana State Board of Equalization. 'Most of my customers are out of Montana,' he said, 'and they love any machine that has a Montana sticker on it.' 'This is a 1934 Pace,' said Harr of an extravagant chrome machine decorated with yellow and red designs. He showed NBC Montana a yellow penny machine. 'Like this one, called a Page Boy,' he said of a green slot machine trimmed in wood. 'I especially I like the ones after WWII.' 'I admire what they used to do back in the '40s,' he said. Harr has his own collection of antique machines. He has one just like it, so you can see how it will be transformed into a shining, red and blue machine with the company's signature castle imprinted on the front. He said the machine needs a good deal of work. 'This is a 1930s Castle Front made by Mills,' he said, 'which will be my next project.' He removed a soft protective quilt from the latest slot machine a client wants to have restored. In his shop, he has dozens of machines from several eras. Harr doesn't work on any machine that is newer than 1950. 'They're mostly for the homebuyer that want (the machines) for decoration.' 'For the last eight years, I have worked on an average of 120 slot machines a year,' he said.

Wes Harr restores such machines at his home in Deer Lodge. They're prized for their colorful history and unique craftsmanship. But in Montana, and many other states, private collectors are permitted to own them.

Today, antique machines can't be used for gambling. From the 1920s to the late 1940s, slot machines were common fixtures in Montana speakeasies, taverns and saloons.īut in 1950, the Montana Supreme Court ruled the machines were illegal under the Montana State Constitution.Įstablishments were raided and many machines were destroyed.

Mills slot machine restoration