That machine was used in laundramats where the washers and dryers used tickets instead of coins.You bought the tickets thru that machine to use the washers and dryers.Used one like this when I was a kid in a laundramat in NH to do our laundry when we were at our summer camp.The tickets were reused after you used it to start the machine-the laundramat attendent would empty the tickets from the machines and recycle them thru the ticket vender machine.