Bally Manufacturing

The Bally Manufacturing Corporation was founded by Raymond Moloney on January 10, 1932, when Bally's parent Lion Manufacturing established the company to make pinball games, taking its name from its first game "Ballyhoo". The Chicago-based company quickly became a leading pinball maker. In the late 1930s, Moloney began making gambling equipment and had great success developing and improving the mechanical slot machines that were the core of the early gaming industry. The company manufactured munitions and airplane parts during World War II, then continued producing innovations in flipperless pinball machines, bingo machines, payout machines, and console slot machines through the late 1950s. They also designed and manufactured vending machines and established a coffee vending service. They also made a brief venture into the music business with the record label Bally Records.

Moloney died in 1958, and the company briefly floundered. The parent company failed financially, and Bally was bought out by a group of investors in 1963. Throughout the 1960s, Bally continued to dominate the slot machine industry, cornering over 90-percent of the worldwide market by the end of the decade. In 1964, Bally introduced the first electromechanical slot machine Money Honey. Around 1968 it bought the Lenc-Smith company which manufactured Bally pinball and arcade cabinets until 1988. It became a publicly traded company and acquired Midway Manufacturing in 1969, an amusement game company from Schiller Park, Illinois.

1970s

The company expanded internationally in 1974 when it acquired German company Guenter Wulff-Apparatebau, which was renamed Bally Wulff.

In the late 1970s, Bally entered the casino ownership business when gambling was legalized in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The effort moved forward even though the company was temporarily unable to attain a permanent license for the completed casino. During this period, company head William T. O'Donnell was forced to resign because of alleged links to organized crime, which he strenuously denied. O'Donnell was questioned by the Moffitt Royal Commission in New South Wales, Australia during an investigation of criminal activities between the US and Australia. He admitted that Genovese Mafia boss Gerardo Catena once owned shares in Bally, but he claimed to have bought him out. He also denied knowing Chicago mobster Joseph Dan Testa, even though Australian police described Testa "as a representative of Bally who visited Australia." The company opened the Park Place Casino & Hotel on December 29, 1979.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Midway was renamed Bally/Midway when it was consolidated with Bally's legacy pinball business. It became a primary source of income for Bally as an early arcade video game maker, obtaining licenses for three of the all-time most popular video games: Space Invaders, Pac-Man, and Ms. Pac-Man.

In the late 1970s, Bally/Midway also made an entry into the growing home video-game market with the Bally Professional Arcade. It had advanced features for the time, including 256 colors and the ability to play four-voice music. It shipped with a cartridge that let users do a limited amount of BASIC programming and save their programs on cassette tape. However, it cost more than its main competitor the Atari 2600 and had far fewer games, and it was unsuccessful despite a loyal following.

1980s

By the mid-1980s, Bally again had a strong balance sheet and began buying other businesses, including the Six Flags amusement park chain in 1982, the Health and Tennis Corporation of America (which became Bally Total Fitness) in 1983, and Scientific Games, a lottery terminal company, in 1986. That year, they also purchased several casinos, including the original MGM Grand Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip (subsequently rebranded Bally's Las Vegas and now the Horseshoe Las Vegas); the MGM Grand in Reno (now Grand Sierra Resort); and the Golden Nugget Atlantic City, rebranded Bally's Grand (most recently the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel). The expansion quickly took its toll on the company's finances, and Bally was soon forced to sell off several divisions, including Six Flags in 1987, Bally/Midway, which was acquired by longtime pinball and video game rival Williams Electronics in 1988, and Aladdin's Castle chain of video arcades, in 1989; Aladdin's Castle was later sold to Namco in 1993 and became part of Namco Cybertainment.

1990s

In 1990, Bally came under new management as its largest shareholder, Arthur Goldberg, was appointed chairman and began a restructuring process. To pay down debts, German subsidiary Bally Wulff was spun off into an independent company in 1991. Scientific Games, exercise equipment maker Life Fitness, and the Reno casino were sold in 1993. The slot machine manufacturing division was spun off as Bally Gaming International, ending the company's involvement in manufacturing.