Stan Fulton Slots Pioneer & Casino Owner Passes Away

Stan Fulton, slots pioneer and owner of New Mexico’s Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino, passed away this week. Fulton died in Las Vegas, Nevada, and was 86 years old at the time of this death.

According to the US News, no official cause of death has been listed.

Fulton’s Early Life

Stan Fulton was raised in Hancock, Maryland. Upon graduating from high school, he joined the United States Air Force in the 1950s.

After his Air Force days, Fulton began a business career where he built cable TV’s. He then embarked on working in the gambling industry, which is where most his fame comes from.

The Beginning of Stan Fulton Slots Visionary

Fulton opened the Fortune Coin company in the 1970s, where he began developing some of the earliest video slot machines.

At the time, slot machines ran on mechanical reels and didn’t have video graphics. But Fulton was one of the earliest slots-makers to create games that operated through video technology.

Today, it’s rare to find anything but video slot machines on casino floors.

By the late 1980s, he was running another company called Anchor Coin (later Anchor Gaming). Here, Fulton operated casinos in Colorado and developed more slot machines, including Wheel of Gold (precursor to the famed Wheel of Fortune).

Purchasing a Racetrack

In 2000, Fulton bought one his first gaming properties in the Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino in New Mexico. He also purchased his first racing horses, most of which went on to have strong careers.

There’s good reason to believe that Fulton did quite well with his racetrack and other businesses. After all, New Mexico State University listed him as their biggest donor with over $17 million in donations.

He was also generous to the Sunland community, donating lots of money to local projects.

That said, it appears that the Stan Fulton slots legend will continue beyond just the gambling world.