Most area bowling alleys have some form of state-sanctioned gambling: lottery tickets, pull-tabs, keno, etc. Four alleys south of Seattle also have casino-style gambling, with poker, blackjack and so on. We have mixed feelings, but since casinos seem to keep these alleys afloat, we’re not gonna complain.

Immediately across Seattle’s southern limit is Roxbury Lanes and its casino. We prefer pinball to Pai Gow, so we’d rather play in the black-lit “Glow Arcade” (which looks like a Pink Floyd album cover), or even ride the coin-op kiddie horse. The ancient lanes are full of dents -- you can actually hear the finish crackle as your ball rolls along...

Outside the casino at White Center's Magic Lanes is a warning to gang members to leave their hoods and colors at home. The awesome upstairs restaurant/lounge has booths overlooking the lanes through tinted glass. We also dig the ‘70s Brunswick 2000 scoring system, with its simple interface, black-and-white monitors, and just three letters per bowler name (Homer Simpson: “Are POO and ASS taken?”)...

More than any other place, the casino seems like the only thing keeping Renton’s Cascade Lanes from closing. Which is a shame, because Cascade also has the Brunswick 2000, along with the area’s coolest old-school interior...

Our favorite alley/casino is the neon-heavy Skyway Park Bowl, featuring Perky’s Pizza, a nine-hole miniature golf course, a dumb miniature bowling alley, a Brunswick LustreKLEEN ball polisher and, uh, a shoeshine stand.

As for the alleys without casinos...

Renton’s Hillcrest Bowl is poorly designed, with a cluttered back area and an in-the-way set of steps separating the deck-area seating from the lanes, while Burien’s Hi-Line Lanes only has stackable meeting-room chairs in its deck area. However, we like Burien’s Brunswick 2000 system and coin-op “Love Meter”...

Neither Kent Bowl (map) nor Federal Way’s Secoma Lanes (map) have web sites, though both are fine venues. “Secoma,” of course, is a portmanteau of “Seattle” and “Tacoma,” due to its mid-point location...

The area’s newest alley is Tukwila’s massive, 51,000 square-foot Acme Bowl (“Max Occupant Load 1740”). It houses 30 lanes, plus another ten lanes in a separate room for private rentals. Everything is brand-new, from state-of-the-art lanes to cushy furniture, fancy light fixtures and ginormous TVs in its multiple lounges. It feels antiseptic, lacking a traditional alley atmosphere, but that’s clearly intentional. Like casinos, we’re not totally into these new “bowling lounges” either. But, hey, it’s still bowling…

(This is the seventh part of an eight-part series. Here are parts one, two, three, four, five, and six.)