Bally

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This article is about the Bally company, a manufacturer of slot machines and pinball machines. For other uses, see Bally (disambiguation).

Bally Technologies, Inc. (originally the Bally Manufacturing Corporation) is an American corporation. The company has existed for more than 70 years with a complex history of re-organizations, mergers, and divestitures; it had roots as an early and successful maker of pinball games and slot machines, and was later associated with both the health club and gambling industries.

Contents 1 History 2 Notable pinballs using the Bally brand 2.1 Distributed by Bally 2.2 Distributed by Midway 2.3 Distributed by The Pinball Factory 3 Notable slot machines 4 Current product groups 5 External links

[edit] History

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The Bally Manufacturing Corporation was founded by Raymond Moloney on January 10, 1932 when Bally's original parent company, Lion Manufacturing, established the company to make pinball games. The company took its name from its first, highly successful, game, dubbed Ballyhoo. The company, based in Chicago, quickly became a leading maker of the popular games.

In the late 1930s, Moloney decided to begin making gambling equipment, and had great success developing and improving the modern mechanical slot machines that formed the backbone of the nascent gaming industry.

After a wartime foray into manufacturing munitions and airplane parts, Bally Manufacturing continued to produce innovations in both pinball and slot machines through the late 1950s, and also designed and manufactured vending machines and established a coffee vending service. Ray Moloney died in 1958 and the company foundered briefly; amid the financial failure of parent company Lions Manufacturing, Bally was bought out by a group of investors in 1963. Through the 1960s Bally continued to dominate the slot machine industry, cornering over 90% of the worldwide market for the machines by the end of the decade.

In the late 1960s, Bally became a publicly-traded company and went on an acquisition spree, buying several companies including a German game company and Midway Manufacturing, an amusement game company from Illinois who made coin-operated electromechanical devices such as puck bowling games. In 1964, Bally introduced the first electromechanical slot machine, called the "Money Honey." [1] In the 1970s and early 1980s Midway would become a primary source of income for Bally as it became an early arcade video game maker and obtained the licenses for two of the most popular video games of all time, Space Invaders and Pac-Man.

In the late 1970s, Bally made an unsuccessful attempt at getting into the casino business as New Jersey legalized gambling in Atlantic City; this effort was thwarted when the company was unable to attain a permanent license for the completed casino. During this period, company head William O'Donnell was forced to resign due to alleged links to organized crime.[2]

Also in the late 1970s, Bally made an entry into the growing market for home computer games. The Bally Astrocade, as the machine was called, had some very advanced features for the time. These included a palette of 256 colors and the ability to play 4-voice music. The machine also shipped with a cartridge that allowed users to do a limited amount of programming on the machine themselves (using the BASIC language), and record their creations on cassette tape. Unfortunately, the machine's price point was higher than that of the Atari 2600 (its major competition), and it had a much more limited set of available games. Despite a loyal following, it failed to compete successfully.

By the mid-1980s, the company again was flush with cash and management envisioned re-defining the manufacturing business as a far-flung leisure industry giant. The company began buying other businesses including the Six Flags amusement park chain and the Health and Tennis Corporation of America.

The company also tried to enter the restaurant business with a hybrid restaurant/arcade called TomFoolery, a predecessor to places like Dave and Buster's. These acquisitions were actually an attempt to take on more debt to resist hostile takeover bids from the Goldberg Group, KKR, and other notable corporate raiders.

The company also was finally successful in purchasing several casinos, including the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas (which was subsequently re-branded as Bally's Las Vegas) and the Golden Nugget Atlantic City. This buying spree quickly took its toll on the company finances, however, and Bally was soon forced to sell off several divisions, including Six Flags and Bally-Midway. The pinball division, along with Midway, was acquired by Williams Electronics in 1988. The Aladdin's Castle chain of game arcades was sold to Namco in 1993, and was renamed Namco Cybertainment, Inc.

Between 1990 and 1992 the profitable company was raided by financial group led by the late Arthur Goldberg (A former partner of George Bush Sr. when he was director of the CIA and partner of Bin Laden family of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) for the purpose of a "slash and burn" sell off of the company assets that were obviously worth more than the price of the stock. Also note that Bally had been fighting off takeover bids from other corporate raiders for ten years prior, taking on debt to make the company less attractive to take-over pirates. Goldberg's group attempted to raid other US corporations that had more value in assets than their stock represented, sometimes successful for his group, but always leading to destruction of the former company. This is how the Enron scam began, following the Goldberg Blueprint. The company's position was finally weakennd by the settlement from the fire at Bally's Casino in Las Vegas, the former MGM Grand, which allowed Goldberg's group to take full control of the company in 1992. The corporate raiders re-christened the company Bally Entertainment Corporation and focused on the health club business to milk the positive cash flow from this division, and spun off the manufacturing-related parts of the company as a separate division for resale. By 1993 the manufacturing division, the leader in fitness equipment including the Life Fitness Brand i.e. Life Cycle, Life Step, Life Rower machines. Bally Gaming International had merged with Alliance Gaming becoming a subsidiary of Alliance, had been completely divested from the parent company (licensing back the Bally name). Bally Gaming International had three divisions, Bally Gaming (slot manufacturing), Bally Systems (slot accounting and management) and Bally Wulff (wall machines).

With the advent of a new century, Bally has indeed come full circle. As founder Ray Moloney intended, the company is once again focused on producing the world’s best gaming devices. A new management team, headed up by former Manhattan Associates, Inc. president Richard M. Haddrill, is forging ahead with a variety of exciting and innovative games and slot systems for the global casino industry.

In 1998, Bally Gaming introduced Thrillions®, a wide-area linked progressive jackpot system, to the casino industry, with cartoon icon Betty Boop™ as the initial game theme on the link. The Thrillions network allows players to vie for the same linked jackpots, ranging from thousands of dollars to more than a million dollars. The Thrillions wide area progressives are unique in that they permit players to play for the same jackpot while playing different machines of different denominations, such as nickel, quarter and dollar slots. Currently there are nearly 2,900 games on separate Thrillions links in casinos throughout Nevada, Mississippi, New Jersey and various Native American gaming establishments across the country.

One of the many video gaming innovations to come from Bally recently was called “EVO™”. The EVO VIDEO game platform was created in part through a unique Rapid Development Partnership (RDP) with Microsoft Corporation. Both the EVO VIDEO and EVO HYBRID slots continued the tradition of innovation which began with the original Ballyhoo pinball machine.

Another innovative division driving Bally’s ongoing success through the years, Bally Systems continues to dominate the rapidly expanding slot accounting market. Recent acquisitions of such companies as Casino Marketplace, MindPlay and Advanced Casino Systems Corporation (ACSC) further broaden Bally Systems portfolio of slot management, accounting and software products. There are currently several hundred thousand gaming devices being monitored by SDS and ACSC in hundreds of casinos worldwide. Casino Marketplace provides a complete suite of software-driven slot promotions. ACSC offers casinos a comprehensive array of slot management tools. And MindPlay is the creator of a unique blackjack table game that uses state-of-the art optics for player tracking and security purposes. The Company’s most recent systems acquisitions include the former Honeyframe, Ltd. of Telford, England and Micro Clever Consulting (MCC) of Nice, France. Both companies offer the global gaming market their own robust and scalable suites of powerful slot accounting and casino management systems, further complementing Bally Systems’ global product capabilities.

Bally Technologies continues to be at the forefront of gaming innovation. Take CineVision™, for example. This remarkable new video-slot platform breaks the mold of traditional video gaming, creating an entirely new gaming experience for slot players. What makes CineVision unique is a revolutionary video monitor that uses the same 16:9 aspect ratio found in movie theaters and on the latest wide-screen plasma televisions. Enhancing CineVision’s immersible gaming experience for players is a dynamic new surround-sound audio system. An ergonomically designed cabinet with padded armrests also create a zone of privacy and comfort for the player, filtering out annoying distractions for the ultimate video gaming experience.

Then there is Hot Shot Progressive™, an entirely new concept in video slots that features five of Bally’s most popular reel-spinning titles embedded in the reels of this dramatic new game. What makes Hot Shot Progressive such a unique breakthrough is in the way the game presents secondary bonus options to the player. Each reel on Hot Shot Progressive from left to right features a miniature version of a classic Bally slot: Blazing 7s®, Diamond Line 777s®, Triple 777s Double Jackpot®, Triple 777s Triple Jackpot® and Triple Blazing 7s Seven Times Pay®. When a player enters the bonus round, they actually “play” these mini-versions of the full-sized originals for a theoretical chance to win up to five progressive jackpots on the same game.

“Playing this game makes one realize what an achievement it was to develop it,” noted respected gaming columnist Frank Legato in the March, 2006 issue of Strictly Slots magazine. “The game would not have been possible a couple of years ago. For one thing, Bally’s new ALPHA video platform with its intricate, brightly colored graphic capabilities was essential. Each of the miniature representations of classic slot machines … provides a striking presentation to the player.”

In yet another technological tour de force, Bally recently received industry accolades for its new S9000 multi-coin, multi-line reel-spinning platform. A prestigious panel of judges at the 3rd Annual Gaming & Technology Awards selected the S9000 as “Best Slot Product” for 2005. The S9000 seamlessly combines the best features of a video slot with a mechanical reel-spinning slot into one integrated and fully operator-configurable platform. With five back-lit illuminated mechanical reels and a top-mounted video display, the S9000 operates on Bally’s vaunted ALPHA OS™ platform, is capable of linking to select M9000 ALPHA video titles and supports thousands of existing Bally S6000 reel-spinning titles.

Another recent technological marvel from Bally is the new iVIEW™ display, a dynamic customer-relationship marketing device capable of cross-promoting everything from gaming promotions to dining outlets and entertainment venues. The full-color interactive LCD touch-screen display is mounted in the slot machine to allow players to review their player’s club points, request a casino host, view entertainment and dining options, or anything else that a casino operator might want to provide. When customers insert their slot-club card, they receive an exciting personalized greeting in full color on the iVIEW display. The system can even present customized greetings and other unique messages designed for specific players.

In addition, iVIEW also allows casino slot personnel to instantly access vital slot machine data, such as machine diagnostics, ticket transaction logs and repair/maintenance information in a much easier-to-understand format. Demonstrating the breakthrough in customer relationship marketing that iVIEW affords casino operators, the upscale Borgata Hotel, Casino and Spa in Atlantic City, N.J., recently ordered 4,000 ACSC iVIEW™ displays, along with the company’s Power Winners™ progressive bonusing product.

Bally, meanwhile, continues to build on a turnaround that took the publicly traded company from the brink of Nasdaq delisting in 2000 to record revenues and profits just two years later. A historic milestone occurred on December 12, 2002 when Alliance Gaming Corp. made the jump from NASDAQ to the “Big Board” of the venerable New York Stock Exchange. Trading under the ticker symbol “AGI,” the Company’s executives celebrated the occasion by ringing the exchange’s opening bell surrounded by costumed representatives of the company’s many themed slot products.

In 2004, Bally acquired Reno, Nevada-based Sierra Design Group (SDG), a well-respected developer of gaming devices and systems, primarily for the expanding Class II Native American and government-run central-determination video lottery businesses. SDG also develops and distributes a variety of traditional Class III gaming devices, including the award-winning “Raining Diamonds” video slot which actually dispenses genuine diamond jewelry right on the slot machine itself. With the acquisition of SDG, Bally acquired the rights to the company’s groundbreaking “ALPHA” operating system. ALPHA offers superior game performance, cashless (Ticket-In/Ticket-Out) capability and enhanced player features. Plans call for the ALPHA operating system to ultimate supplant the EVO operating system as the primary operating system for its video-slot gaming products, which will be housed in a sleek new ergonomic cabinet called the “M 9000.”

The year 2004 also saw another important development in the history of the company as Richard Haddrill took over on October 1 as President and Chief Executive Officer. Haddrill has served on the Board of Directors for Alliance since April 2003 and most recently completed five years as CEO of Manhattan Associates, Inc., a leader in software solutions to the supply chain industry throughout the world. During his tenure at Manhattan, the company expanded its product offerings and market share, more than tripled revenues to almost $200 million and increased its share price more than eightfold. Mr. Haddrill previously served as President and CEO for Powerhouse Technologies, Inc., a successful technology and gaming company from September 1996 until June 1999, when Powerhouse was acquired by Anchor Gaming, a publicly traded gaming company that was acquired by International Game Technology in 2001.

The health-club divisions of the company, which is not affiliated with the current Las Vegas-based Bally Technologies, would go by the name Bally Health and Tennis Corporation of America or formerly HTCA or Health and Tennis Corporation of America and later Bally Total Fitness. The President and CEO of HTCA, Donahue Wildman would stay on as president of the division.

HTCA, the largest health and fitness chain with more than 300 clubs in the US also acquired two health clubs in London to serve as a hub for future plans for expansion into Europe. Other notable clubs were the Vertical Club and New York Health Club located in New York City. HTCA has become the global giant in the health fitness club industry, an industry at the time reported to be worth 5 Billion dollars a year. When HTCA was acquired by Bally they already absorbed the largest health club chains in the US including, Chicago Health Clubs, Scandinavian Health Clubs, Holiday Health Spa, Jack Lalane Health and Fitness, Pacific West, and any other large chain they could add to their network. All memberships that had been sold in the previously mentioned centers could now use their membership cards to avail of services at any of Bally’s Health and Fitness Clubs, as they were eventually called. Some clubs still retained suffixes in their name where services were available such as Bally’s Health and Racquet Clubs. In some cases like the Scandinavian Health Clubs in South Florida retain their original name with only a small “Bally’s” affixed to their former logo.

The health club division became extremely successful with the fitness trend of the 1980’s and 1990’s. Memberships were generally set up with a large initiation fee to join followed by lower annual dues for the lifetime of the membership. Limited one year memberships were available on a limited basis.

Bally’s Fitness eventually ran into some trouble with many complaints of high pressure sales tactics in some of the clubs where financing of the initiation fee was common. In the 1980’s the initiation fee could be financed up to 24 months, but by 1990 36 month contracts were common. The average monthly payment was about $30.00 per month financed at an average APR of 18%. The health division actually owned all of their separately incorporated finance companies. Some of the collections methods used by these sub entity finance companies drew quick complaints in every state that the clubs operated in.

In order to correct this public relation nightmare a nationwide report was sent out to all the clubs under corporation to clean up their sales activities. By 1990 the clubs were operating again at 30% cash with the 70% percent in finance. This was a vast improvement from the year before at only 15% cash and 85% deferred to the finance entities. The public image immediately improves.

In the late 1980’s Bally also began their Corporate Program. This was a plan to sell fitness memberships directly to corporations to promote wellness among employees. Virtually every major corporation in the United States enrolled in this program, which offered discounts to employees of up to 30%. This was another cash windfall for the Health and Fitness divisions, which also attracted the eyes of corporate raiders like that of the Goldberg Group who eventually took control of the Bally parent in 1992, something his group began in 1990.

The result of the Goldberg takeover on the health and fitness division was catastrophic. Over half of the corporate partnerships were dissolved within 12 month of the takeover. With in 24 month 85% of the newly created corporate marker was lost to neglect, as the Goldberg group eliminated the corporate workers. The program officially still existed without anyone to maintain it. It was clear that Goldberg’s Raiders were only interested in taking as much cash out of the divisions as quickly as possible. By 1994 fitness memberships sales were down 60%. Due to a short term strategy of offering up 80% off the initiation fees if the client could pay $200.00 to $400.00. There was nothing left in a maintenance budget so many of the once pristine clubs were in disrepair. The famous Vertical Club and New York Health Clubs were sold in the 1992 gutting of the companies as were the expansion London clubs.

Today the Bally’s Total Fitness is trying to rebuild after the Goldberg Disaster. With still more than 200 corporately owned clubs this is the largest solely owned and operated chain. Memberships are currently selling at an average of $300.00 per year. The glory days of the fitness clubs have clearly passed though. Instead of large free standing building clubs are located in strip malls, are much smaller, and only offer a barebones selection of services. It still remains to be seen if Bally’s Total Fitness, formerly HTCA, will ever be able to regain their edge in the industry.

(edited 9/1/2006 for clarity concerning the HTCA division and other spelling errors.)

Many casinos worldwide would take on the Bally name in the maze of ownership and licensing agreements typical of that business. Midway would continue to use the Bally name for its pinball games, until WMS Industries (the parent company of Williams) ceased pinball production in 1999. By this time the corporate American Giant had been reduced to a former shell of itself as Goldberg's group slashed employee benefits, raided pensions funds, and ignored promises made to employees, resulting in a series of EEOC violations for refusing to honor benefits promised by the company prior to his corporate raid, in an attempt to avoid paying Unemployment Compensation by only eliminating positions, but never actually firing or laying off a single employee though and estimated 50,000 jobs were slashed. These jobs were simply erased, however most states prevented this plan by over-ruling Goldberg's tactics and UC benefits were eventually paid to most employees who were phased out during the takeover. Also note that by 1995 Goldberg's group had raped the Health and Fitness clubs of nearly half of their value by neglecting the maintenance of the health clubs simply by eliminating that part of the budget. The result in the health clubs was an average membership price of $1000.00 at the time of the takeover to less than $300.00 for the same imitation fee in less than 3 years. This was a short term plan to raise as much cash in a short period of time to be pocketed by Goldberg's Raiders. This was part of the corporate "slash and burn" tactic common in the 1980s and 1990s in Corporate America, commonly known as the "hostile takeover". Oliver Stone's award winning film "Wallstreet" was partially based on Arthur Goldberg's investment company, sometimes called "Goldberg's Raiders". Another Film called "Barbarians at the Gate" was based on the novel of the same name, featured the KKR Group who as part of the plot illustrated the process of a hostile takeover of the RJR Nabisco company. The most recent case of hostile takeovers using "fuzzy accounting" was the Enron Group of companies that folded leaving millions of stockholders with nothing for the investment while all pension accounts were converted into the worthless stock in the largest white collar Ponzi Scheme in US history.

In 1995 Bally Entertainment Corporation was purchased by Hilton Hotels Corporation, later the casino resorts division of Hilton Hotels became Park Place Entertainment, which later changed its name to Caesars Entertainment, and in 2005 was acquired by Harrah's Entertainment.

On March 31, 2005, WMS Industries struck a deal with Australian company The Pinball Factory to give them a license for the intellectual properties and the rights to re-manufacture former Bally/Williams games in the field of mechanical pinball. In addition, The Pinball Factory also has bought the right to manufacture new games using his company's new hardware system under the Bally brand.

With a nod to the company’s long and illustrious legacy of innovation, the shareholders of Alliance Gaming Corp., the parent company of Bally Gaming, Inc., voted on March 6, 2006 to formally change the name of the corporate entity to Bally Technologies, Inc., discontinue the use of Bally Gaming and Systems as an Alliance subsidiary and present a singular name and a united message. Bally Technologies is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BYI.

“Our company made the decision several years ago to focus our energy and investments on being a leader in supplying technology to the gaming industry. The recent name change to Bally Technologies, Inc. is a reflection of the progress we have made toward that goal and an extension of our long-term strategic plan,” said Richard Haddrill, CEO of Bally Technologies. “The signature Bally script logo is known worldwide and our forthcoming 75th anniversary in 2007 is a reminder to us and our stakeholders of the long-standing value of the Bally name in the gaming industry. Given our enhanced commitment to research and development, the Bally Technologies, Inc. name also more accurately reflects our corporate identity as a true technology provider.” From technological milestones such as the first slot machine featuring a “bottomless hopper” and the first fully electronic reel-spinning slot to the world’s first electronic slot management system – SDS® – Bally Technologies continues this path of innovation with a number of groundbreaking new reel-spinning, video-slot and systems products.

[edit] Notable pinballs using the Bally brand

[edit] Distributed by Bally

• Bangalore (2007)
• Chennai (2005)
• Amigo (1974)
• Ballyhoo (flipperless) (1932)
• Ballyhoo (flippers) (1947)
• Boomerang (1974)
• Capersville (1967)
• Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy (1976)
• Dogies (1968)
• Eight Ball (1977)
• Evel Knievel (1977)
• Fireball (1972)
• Fireball II (1983)
• Four Million B.C. (1971)
• KISS (1979)
• Lady Luck (1986)
• Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man (1982)
• Playboy (1978)
• Sky Divers (1964)
• The Six Million Dollar Man (1978)
• "Theater of Magic" (1995)
• Wizard! (1975)
• Xenon (1980; features music and voices by electronic music composer Suzanne Ciani)
• Nip-It (1972) features ball grabbing feature called balligtor. Used on TV show Happy Days

[edit] Distributed by Midway

• The Addams Family (1992; based on the 1992 movie, it would go on to become the best-selling pinball of all time)
• The Twilight Zone (1993)

[edit] Distributed by The Pinball Factory

• The Crocodile Hunter Outback Adventure (in development, for possible release in 2006)

It's waiting for the release until the end of 2007 due to the death of the main-character of the game(Steve Irwin).

[edit] Notable slot machines

• Money Honey (1964)
• Blazing 7s (1993)
• Playboy (2002)

[edit] Current product groups

• ACSC, or Advanced Casino Systems Corporation, a slot accounting system.
• BallyOne, a slot accounting system.
• Bally Gaming
• MCC, or Micro Clever Consulting, a slot accounting system.
• MP21, or Mindplay, a table game accounting system.
• SDS, or the Slot Data System, a slot accounting system.

[edit] External links

• Bally Technologies, Inc. Official website
• Bally Total Fitness Official website
• Caesars Entertainment Group Parent company of Bally's hotels
• The Pinball Factory Current licensors to the Williams/Bally pinball games
• Internet Pinball Database
• Bally slot machines