If you like playing poker, blackjack or other slot-machine games but are tired of driving to casinos or losing money, here's an answer.

Buy a used slot machine for your home, with all the lights, bells, whistles, chimes and clangs.

The Slot Machine Store, which opened in Chandler last July at 7050 W. Chandler Blvd., sells machines, for about $500 to $3,000, that it has purchased from Las Vegas casinos.

Norma Alvarez, the owner, said customers have bought more than one and turned rooms over to them.

"We have some customers with some pretty unusual rooms that used to be dining rooms," she said.

Customers mostly buy the machines for fun, she said, and, "Several buy them to keep out of the casinos because they don't want to donate to the casinos. They can use the money for vacations."

The Slot Machine Store and One Arm Gambler, at 1944 E. University Drive in Tempe, have been selling used slots in Arizona for about a decade. Both stores also repair them.

"It is legal to have one in your home as long as you are not making money off it," said Christa Severns, spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Gaming. "Gambling is risking something of value to receive a prize."

Alvarez makes sure that buyers sign a form stating that they understand that the slot machines are for home use only, and she is required by the federal government to keep track of serial numbers.

"I'm dealing in a controlled substance," she said.

Elizabeth Mack, who has six slot machines in a special room in her south Phoenix home, always keeps coins near her machines and prohibits guests from using their own money.

When the machines fill up, as they inevitably do, she and her family empty them and reuse the coins.

"I see it as one giant piggy bank," she said.

She said it has shown her that if you continue playing slot machines, you don't win.

But her son, Brian, has learned one advantage of plugging away at his favorite slots game, Keno.

"When I go to the casinos, I've done better," he said.

Alvarez, who also has two stores in Tucson and one in Sierra Vista, buys 500 machines at a time from Las Vegas casinos, which are always looking to update their machines. She said she sells about 50 a week at the Chandler store.

She said it is a time-consuming business because someone has to be in Las Vegas weekly to be available when casinos bring in new machines and sell the old.

Since casino machines have gotten away from coins and bills toward coupons, she has to convert machines she sells to coins.

She said they should work for years.

"Slot machines have about 10 million plays in them, so there's lots of play left," she said.