39 ms·

That Time America Outlawed Pinball (2016)

65 points by cdme 3y ago

charcircuit 3y ago
It shouldn't be surprising. Just take a look at pachinko for the modern day version.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  And pinball back then was pretty similar to pachinko, according to the article. "Before the advent of flippers in 1947, pinball was a considerably different game from what it is today. Except for tipping the machines, players were at the mercy of the random bounce of the ball. Players gambled on games, and operators handed out prizes from free games and gum all the way up to jewelry and chinaware."
  - gorkish 3y ago
    Pre flipper machines are straight up designed to be gambling machines; I have a couple in my collection. Most of the articles and coverage conveniently leave out this fact. The effect at the time was the same as it would be today if private businesses could all install one arm bandit slot machines. I personally think it was all handled very poorly, and I love what pinball became from the ordeal, but there was certainly justification against the machines at that time.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  Might be surprising to young people who are used to people casually gambling on sports 24/7 using their phone. Crazy how gambling went from a highly restricted thing to a full blown, anytime, anywhere, no restrictions thing without any federal legislation (that I am aware of).
  - hot_gril 3y ago
    Those mobile sports gambling apps aren't legal in most states as far as I know. They also block IP addresses outside the legal states.
pizzafeelsright 3y ago
Check out the pinball museum in Virginia. Amazing.
- oddsockmachine 3y ago
  Also the museum in Alameda CA, which does a good job of walking you through the history of the ban.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
a-dub 3y ago
i believe that up until recent years replay/special features were illegal on machines in new york state as they were believed to be used to signal payouts in gambling settings.
briandrum 3y ago
Hard to believe? Possession of a pinball machine is still a first-degree misdemeanor where I live. https://codes.forchagrin.com/chapters/chapter-715-coin-operated-machines/ https://codes.forchagrin.com/chapters/chapter-715-coin-opera...
- pfgallagher 3y ago
  Did you put this together? It looks great. The site our village uses to host its village code is an atrocity so I’ve been considering rolling my own unofficial version.
  - briandrum 3y ago
    I did, thank you! Our official code is hosted by American Legal Publishing [1], but it's so bad that I decided to download a copy and try hosting my own. After I was elected to our village council I started to notice the similarities between legal code and computer code – large amounts of plain text, formatting, and change management. I ended up using Markdown with some special CSS styling, and the site is generated by Jekyll and hosted on GitHub Pages. BBEdit and regex was a huge help to whip it into shape. You are welcome to use anything I've done [2]. I would love to see more people doing the same. [1] https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/chagrinfalls/latest/overview https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/chagrinfalls/latest/ov... [2] https://github.com/briandrum/codes.forchagrin.com https://github.com/briandrum/codes.forchagrin.com
    - IIAOPSW 3y ago
      Lots have heard "code is law". Fewer have noticed "law is code".
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
    - valleyer 3y ago
      The GitHub repo is 404ing. Maybe it's set to be private?
nytesky 3y ago
This was a major plot point in Licorice Pizza!
js2 3y ago
Recent docudrama/biopic about Roger Sharpe: https://letterboxd.com/film/pinball-the-man-who-saved-the-game/ https://letterboxd.com/film/pinball-the-man-who-saved-the-ga... More about Sharpe: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/meet-the-sharpes-pinballs-royal-jewish-family https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/meet-the-sh...
alwa 3y ago
There’s a fairly recent movie [0] that charmingly dramatizes the efforts of New York City activist Roger Sharpe to overturn the city’s ban. It’s aesthetically satisfying and good-humored, and it weaves a fair amount of history into a lighthearted good time. “Pinball: The Man Who Saved The Game” [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball:_The_Man_Who_Saved_the_Game https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball:_The_Man_Who_Saved_t...
kragen 3y ago
for me this url redirects to the home page of https://www.historylatam.com/ https://www.historylatam.com/ which seems to be some kind of ufology and did-the-aliens-build-the-pyramids channel. probably the domain should be banned as malicious content this is not the kind of content that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity
- trevcanhuman 3y ago
  Unfortunately the official History channel website always redirects you to the Latin American version, preventing people with a Latin American IP address to access any US content.
- bdw5204 3y ago
  That's actually what the History Channel airs on cable in the US. It was originally a serious channel that covered history but now shows conspiracy nonsense and shows about pawn shops. It's one of the most infamous examples of network decay along with "Music Television" which now plays crappy reality shows instead of music videos. Before the History Channel became the conspiracy nonsense channel, it was basically the Hitler Channel because talking ad nauseum about World War 2 brought in more ratings than other historical topics. See https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/t6wmv8/when_did_the_history_channel_become_a_conspiracy/ https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/t6wmv8/when_did... and https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/437715-grassley-mocks-the-history-channel/ https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/437715-grassley-mocks-th... for evidence of the channel's current reputation in the US.
  - bitwize 3y ago
    I once drew a comic that parodied the History Channel. It involved "Unicorns of the Third Reich".
Terr_ 3y ago
Now I'm thinking of Tommy (1975) featuring The Who, where at one point the protagonist--psychosomatically deaf, mute, and blind--has become a pinball-playing phenomenon through his sense of touch alone, facing the reigning "Pinball Wizard" [0] played by Elton John. Not sure whether pinball was outlawed in the fictional location though. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL53EUbHazo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL53EUbHazo

65 points by cdme 3y ago

charcircuit 3y ago

It shouldn't be surprising. Just take a look at pachinko for the modern day version.

hot_gril 3y ago
And pinball back then was pretty similar to pachinko, according to the article. "Before the advent of flippers in 1947, pinball was a considerably different game from what it is today. Except for tipping the machines, players were at the mercy of the random bounce of the ball. Players gambled on games, and operators handed out prizes from free games and gum all the way up to jewelry and chinaware."
- gorkish 3y ago
  Pre flipper machines are straight up designed to be gambling machines; I have a couple in my collection. Most of the articles and coverage conveniently leave out this fact. The effect at the time was the same as it would be today if private businesses could all install one arm bandit slot machines. I personally think it was all handled very poorly, and I love what pinball became from the ordeal, but there was certainly justification against the machines at that time.
lotsofpulp 3y ago
Might be surprising to young people who are used to people casually gambling on sports 24/7 using their phone. Crazy how gambling went from a highly restricted thing to a full blown, anytime, anywhere, no restrictions thing without any federal legislation (that I am aware of).
- hot_gril 3y ago
  Those mobile sports gambling apps aren't legal in most states as far as I know. They also block IP addresses outside the legal states.

pizzafeelsright 3y ago

Check out the pinball museum in Virginia. Amazing.

oddsockmachine 3y ago
Also the museum in Alameda CA, which does a good job of walking you through the history of the ban.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

a-dub 3y ago

i believe that up until recent years replay/special features were illegal on machines in new york state as they were believed to be used to signal payouts in gambling settings.

briandrum 3y ago

Hard to believe? Possession of a pinball machine is still a first-degree misdemeanor where I live. https://codes.forchagrin.com/chapters/chapter-715-coin-operated-machines/ https://codes.forchagrin.com/chapters/chapter-715-coin-opera...

pfgallagher 3y ago
Did you put this together? It looks great. The site our village uses to host its village code is an atrocity so I’ve been considering rolling my own unofficial version.
- briandrum 3y ago
  I did, thank you! Our official code is hosted by American Legal Publishing [1], but it's so bad that I decided to download a copy and try hosting my own. After I was elected to our village council I started to notice the similarities between legal code and computer code – large amounts of plain text, formatting, and change management. I ended up using Markdown with some special CSS styling, and the site is generated by Jekyll and hosted on GitHub Pages. BBEdit and regex was a huge help to whip it into shape. You are welcome to use anything I've done [2]. I would love to see more people doing the same. [1] https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/chagrinfalls/latest/overview https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/chagrinfalls/latest/ov... [2] https://github.com/briandrum/codes.forchagrin.com https://github.com/briandrum/codes.forchagrin.com
  - IIAOPSW 3y ago
    Lots have heard "code is law". Fewer have noticed "law is code".
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - valleyer 3y ago
    The GitHub repo is 404ing. Maybe it's set to be private?

nytesky 3y ago

This was a major plot point in Licorice Pizza!

js2 3y ago

Recent docudrama/biopic about Roger Sharpe: https://letterboxd.com/film/pinball-the-man-who-saved-the-game/ https://letterboxd.com/film/pinball-the-man-who-saved-the-ga... More about Sharpe: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/meet-the-sharpes-pinballs-royal-jewish-family https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/meet-the-sh...

alwa 3y ago

There’s a fairly recent movie [0] that charmingly dramatizes the efforts of New York City activist Roger Sharpe to overturn the city’s ban. It’s aesthetically satisfying and good-humored, and it weaves a fair amount of history into a lighthearted good time. “Pinball: The Man Who Saved The Game” [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball:_The_Man_Who_Saved_the_Game https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball:_The_Man_Who_Saved_t...

kragen 3y ago

for me this url redirects to the home page of https://www.historylatam.com/ https://www.historylatam.com/ which seems to be some kind of ufology and did-the-aliens-build-the-pyramids channel. probably the domain should be banned as malicious content this is not the kind of content that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity

trevcanhuman 3y ago
Unfortunately the official History channel website always redirects you to the Latin American version, preventing people with a Latin American IP address to access any US content.
bdw5204 3y ago
That's actually what the History Channel airs on cable in the US. It was originally a serious channel that covered history but now shows conspiracy nonsense and shows about pawn shops. It's one of the most infamous examples of network decay along with "Music Television" which now plays crappy reality shows instead of music videos. Before the History Channel became the conspiracy nonsense channel, it was basically the Hitler Channel because talking ad nauseum about World War 2 brought in more ratings than other historical topics. See https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/t6wmv8/when_did_the_history_channel_become_a_conspiracy/ https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/t6wmv8/when_did... and https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/437715-grassley-mocks-the-history-channel/ https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/437715-grassley-mocks-th... for evidence of the channel's current reputation in the US.
- bitwize 3y ago
  I once drew a comic that parodied the History Channel. It involved "Unicorns of the Third Reich".

Terr_ 3y ago

Now I'm thinking of Tommy (1975) featuring The Who, where at one point the protagonist--psychosomatically deaf, mute, and blind--has become a pinball-playing phenomenon through his sense of touch alone, facing the reigning "Pinball Wizard" [0] played by Elton John. Not sure whether pinball was outlawed in the fictional location though. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL53EUbHazo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL53EUbHazo