The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 9 plus 7 letter word ONE-ARMED BANDITS
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
O
N
E
-
A
R
M
E
D
B
A
N
D
I
T
S
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "gambling machines" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case gambling machines = one-armed bandits.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.