At one time, pinball was banned in many large U.S. cities.
Some things make me think the apocolypse is either getting further away or is imminently close. At the same time. This is one of them.
I had to read the article twice because I thought that - though the site isn't really the type to run a crazy-fun-fake story - that it just might be made up.
I was so credulous, I did some research. And sure enough, from the 1940s to the mid 1970s, pinball was banned. At one time, New York was such a haven of safety, security and prosperity that its police force had time to hold alcohol prohibition-style raids on dangerous pinball houses. New York didn't overturn its ban until 1976.
Which, also similar to prohibition, simply forced pinball underground into ... speakeasies? Balleasies? Slapeasies? They were hidden in pornography houses, for The Man In the Sky's sake.
The story of the fall of the NY ban, #6 on the list of the things you didn't know about pinball here, is pretty amazing. The NY ban was eventually overturned when the council was convinced, largely by luck, that that game is one of skill and not actually luck.
More amazing: Nashville, Tenn., just overturned its ban recently and it's still illegal to play the game on Sundays in Ocean City, N.J.
Think poker will eventually come to the same resolution?
...my brain just oozed out some important information in place of humanity's stupidity...
ReplyDeleteLike I said: I'm not sure whether to be jubilent that this period in our history has passed, or horrified that it happened and continues to happen.
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