A POSSIBLE END TO FAKE / REPRODUCTION SLOT MACHINES

[Midcoast Vintage]

ACCORDING TO THIS ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE " AUCTION ACTION ANTIQUE NEWS" (http://WWW.AUCTIONACTIONNEWS.COM ) , THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION (FTC) STATES THAT "SELLING AN ANTIQUE OR COLLECTIBLE ITEM THAT IS NOT AUTHENTIC IS FRAUD". [color=#00BF00]READ MORE IN THE ARTICLE BELOW. [/color]
Perhaps this will put an end... or at least slow down... the clowns turning out the reproductions, and, the people that are butchering and/or creating "FANTASY' machines.

[SLOT DYNASTY]

Thanks for the 'Heads-Up'. Truly a step in the direction, that most of us will be looking forward to.
It's going to be very interesting, to see how fast the 'Greedy Fraudsters' start lowering the prices of all
the "Golden Maggets", "War Beagles", "Lion Testicles", "Bursting Fairies", "Liberty" & "Operators Balls",
and all the other Fakes that follow suit, so that they can be rid of them, before the clamps are applied.

[gamblingman]

After a lot of years working with, and enforcing the law, I would not hold my breath for a flood of prosecuetions. You are right, it is a step in the right direction, and it may make places like ebay a bit safer since they could be somewhat accountable for what gets posted, however there are already many laws on the books that cover a lot of what has been happening, and no one wants to enforce them. It is going to take the right person, and the right case to bring some real attention to this issue. Most prosecuetors look at it as a "buyer beware" type of thing, and your remedy is in civil court. Now if someone were to buy a whole collection of repros or doctored machines, then that might involve enough money to warrant the attention, but again it would have to be a really big purchase. I hope no one ever gets taken that bad for a lot of reasons. Then you mudddle in the fact that most of these guys have a warped sense of reality and argue because it uses an original part somewhere, it is then antique....you wind up with facts that we as collectors see in black and white, but the legal world sees a bit more cloudy. I'm not making a case for any butcher, and I cringe every time I see these things hit the web, even when they are represented as repros. The reason being is because someone down the line will inherit or buy the machine and not know the difference, and then end up mis-representing it at some point. I'm merely saying I wouldn't expect the SWAT teams to swoop into any butcher shops in the near future............we are going to be fighting this battle for a long time to come.

[mechanic]

A long time ago (1980's) In a land far far away (not where I live) there was mentioned that any reproduction part must be stamped with an R or some other way to identify it from original parts. This I believe is a law. It was specific to the slot machine industry back then, but I have never seen anyone that followed that standard yet.