Going through the photo album I found this one. I took this photo is Tassie in 1978 or 79. The law there (I think) was that you could not insert coins in pins, therefore you paid at the counter and credits were put on the machine. If you look closely at the coin slots, they are blocked. Somewhere in the house I have a couple more of these - I'll see if I can find them

This is correct, when i used to frequent the pinny parlors you payed your money at the counter for pinball but you could insert coins in arcade machines
not sure when this changed, or why it was so.
one of the parlors you paid at a window,all the machines were wired to a switch the op would press to give the credit, these wires used to run around the room and into the back of each machine,, someone had worked out if you climbed under the machine and cut through the wire plastic coating with a knife it would make contact with the credit wires and give you a credit, boy we got some free games until the op found out

cheers Ian