SLOT MACHINES

Hokitika Guardian, 19 March 1940, Page 8

SLOT MACHINES

MAN’S FORTUNE' FROM PENNIES

i Weajtli came ( to Oliver Dalton, owner of the Palace Pier, at Brighton, Sussex, from pennies that went into slot machines. He died, leaving a fortune of £l29,ooo—nearly forty ; million pennies. Vet, when he turned on the gas tap and died in the kitchen of his luxurious home, he thought he was a ruined man. For a few days previously he had told a friend: “I am broke. I haven’t a penny dm tire world. All they can take: is .furniture.” Ollie, as lie was popul'ai-ly-ikfiown fronTTßrightoii tcf- Cifcyirand: back to Dieppe j /^ ! ohef of JJriglij- • .ton’s three,j wealthiest public' menr fors"A' 1 yjmr 60 his health hod%seen|ffaiiing - apdj he. had two nervous breakdowns. The war/ which brought the season on the Palace Pier to an abrupt end and compelled him to dismiss old servants, preyed on his mind. Some of these servants he has remembered in his £129,000 will published in London.

At ten years of age this: slot machine, king sold newspapers .in the streets of Brighton. “After my paper-selling days/’ he once told, a reporter, “I scraped and saved and became interested in bathing machines on Brighton beachThen, with, the money .I made, I bought a few automatic machines and put them on the pier.” He made frequent trips to Atlantic City, where he purchased novel attractions and new machines for the pier,- which was his great interest in life. •

And the man who made his fortune from the slot machine pennies of the public was always . willing to help those in need.