1. A vending machine in the style of a slot machine and having at least in part a slot machine function, comprising: a housing; a slot machine mechanism mounted inside the housing, including a plurality of symbol reels, with a window in the front of the housing through which the symbol reels are visible; a swingable slot machine actuator handle on the exterior of the housing, operably connected to the slot machine mechanism such that pulling of the actuator handle is effective to actuate the slot machine mechanism, rotating the symbol reels in the manner of a slot machine; means associated with the slot machine mechanism for successively stopping the rotation of the reels; a hopper at an upper location in the housing for articles to be vended, an article dispensing outlet at a lower location on the housing, a coin insert slot and a coin drop area in the housing; and vending means in the housing for dispensing an article from the hopper to the dispensing outlet in response to insertion of a coin, including timing means for causing the article to reach the outlet within a predetermined time interval after the coin is inserted, the vending means comprising a vending wheel mounted at the bottom of the hopper for rotation about a vertical axis and having a plurality of openings equally angularly spaced on the wheel for passing one article from the hopper at a time, a chute positioned just below the vending wheel such that a partial rotation of the wheel will bring a single article over the chute, permitting it to drop, with means for blocking further articles from dropping, a motor for rotating the vending wheel, and means for activating the motor in response to the insertion of a coin; said predetermined time interval being longer than the time ordinarily required for a user to pull the handle and for all the symbol reels in the slot machine mechanism to stop.