Bally Hole

The Bally Hole is hole #16 among the 25 Trap Holes of a mid-1950s Bally Bingo Pinball playfield, wired to do something special when its light is on — classically, awarding the player’s first extra ball free.^[1][2] That was worth real money on a bingo, where up to three extra balls are otherwise bought with coins after the fifth ball, at odds the machine steadily worsens.^[3] The hole could also light features for the next game played — enabling all of a game’s Magic Squares at once, say — a next-game award in the tradition the One-Ball payout games had proven: give the player a reason to put in another coin.^[1][4] It arrived on Broadway (1955) alongside Magic Squares.^[2][5]