Payazzo

Payazzo (or pajatso) is a traditional Finnish gambling arcade game, dating back to the 1920s, when it was introduced into Finland from Germany.

The popularity of the nickname was proven as the manufacturer decided to use only the informal form in the names of some models of payazzo combining coin flicking with an electronic game of luck.

These models are Hedelmäjazzo (Fruit Jazzo) from the early nineties and Komeetta Jasso (The Comet-Jasso), which is used today.

Behind the transparent front panel there is a vertical playing area that is less than a meter wide and approximately twenty centimeters high (for machines with a single row of winning slots).

A metal ring used to hit the coin is on the right side of the machine (rather than on the front panel) at the height of a typical user's chest.

In traditional models, also the supply of coins available for paying winnings is visible through the transparent front panel.

It bounces off the edges of the playing area and gates, small obstacles next to the entries to the winning slots.

The basic structure of payazzo remained the same for a long time, except that the denomination of the coin the game was played with varied due to inflation.

The second model is Komeetta Jasso, which combines the payazzo-style coin flicking with an electronic game of luck.

In Komeetta Jasso, the player can also change the winning sums the machine pays by flicking a coin into a designated slot.

During its history, Raha-automaattiyhdistys has exported payazzos into Norway, Soviet Union, Hungary, Australia, Netherlands, Las Vegas, Iceland and Sweden.