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Bangor’s Slot Machine History Not So Clean

Back in 1907, it was discovered that there were several illegal slot machines being operated in Bangor, as they were illegal at the time. Back then, slot machines were rigged to dispense cigars to those who won after putting their nickel in the machine.

But a man by the name of Rev. Henry N. Pringle, a secretary of the Maine Christian Civic League came to town to swear out arrests on several businessmen who were operating slot machines in their fair town. He took the sheriff and some deputies with them and went from place to place showing them the illegal slot machines.

By the end he had seized nine illegal slot machines, and arrested the men holding them - and he ordered the machines destroyed the next day in court. Only one of the plaintiffs appealed. Pringle then went on to say that because these men had had been operating the illegal slot machines that they were actually operating gambling establishments, which was illegal.

Each of the men were found guilty as charged, except for the one man who had appealed. He ran the pawn shop and was holding the slot machines for a man who had died – the judge found him not guilty. Pringle won the other cases but was vilified in the press for it, as they said that he simply tried the cases to get the witness fees, and other such slanderous allegations that Pringle denied.

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