TEXT ON SCREEN: BEFORE VIDEO GAMES

BEFORE ROCK AND ROLL

EVEN BEFORE COMIC BOOKS

THERE WAS PINBALL

SETH PORGES (JOURNALIST AND PINBALL EXPERT): Through the decades, there have been so many things that adults have looked at and said, these things are harmful to children, we don’t like them. But with pinball machines they actually passed laws against them.

ARCHIVAL:
NEWSREEL: New York City completes a roundup of thousands of pinball machines each valued at about $100.

SETH PORGES: The most amazing thing about the pinball bans is how long they lasted. Pinball was illegal in New York City from 1942 until 1976.

TEXT ON SCREEN: MOST PINBALL BANS WERE LIFTED IN THE 1970s. BUT WE HEARD A RUMOR THAT ONE IS STILL IN EFFECT.

SETH PORGES: We’re here in Ocean City, New Jersey on a Sunday, and I have long heard that to this day, it was illegal to play pinball machines on a Sunday, and if that’s true, everybody in here, including myself, is breaking the law.

We found this law that specifically mentions that it’s illegal to operate a pinball machine after midnight or all day Sunday. Now this law only applies to non-arcades, so places with arcade licenses are exempt.

TEXT ON SCREEN: BUT WHY BAN PINBALL TO BEGIN WITH?

SETH PORGES: The thing about pinball machines is they were viewed as a game of chance and not skill. The ball is going wild. It goes everywhere. There is this innate chaos to the pinball machine, and no matter how good you are at pinball, you can’t control that ball. And thus, according to the logic at the time, that made them gambling machines. But unlike other gambling machines out there – things like slot machines – pinball machines were also viewed as a game that would appeal to children and turn them into stark raving mad gambling addicts. That’s what the threat of pinball is all about.

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