https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9w4ZYXtCiw
this is crazy. has anyone told Frank about this yet?
Lol I thought I had already posted about this here but it turns out it was in a completely unrelated discord channel. But The State of New York vs Pinball is one of my all time favorite gaming stories
Here's Sharpe talking about “The Shot that Saved Pinball”
https://youtu.be/oHsTMTnjtGk
And here's LaGuardia starting the century long fight against video games:
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This story is super cool, but I'd be intensely interested in hearing about how other countries dealt with the issue. I know in japan pachinko gambling is technically illegal but they have a workaround?
I'd love if any international users could tell me about how the game of skill/gambling distinction was dealt with in their country. I'd be especially curious to hear anything about what the pinball scene (if one exists) is like outside the US.
I think I heard that Pinball remained illegal in latin america for longer than the US?
There‘s a pretty great Drunk History with Roger Sharpe. They’re also making a full blown movie based on him, too.
Genuinely one of the nicest people in pinball and one hell of a freakin' legacy.
Unfortunately I don't think there is much of interest to tell you as far as Australia is concerned. For better or worse (read: worse) gambling is legalised and normalised here. Quite a few (unfortunately, more like “many” or even “most”) pubs will have a side-room full of pokie machines and sports betting terminals.
As such, pinball and arcade games were never vilified here, at least not that I remember.
The excellent 20th century country music podcast Cocaine and Rhinestones has an excellent description of pinball on the first episode of seasons 2. The podcast and a full transcript are on this page:
https://cocaineandrhinestones.com/starday-records-the-anti-nashville-sound
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Pinball is still illegal in some places. Oakland only relatively recently decriminalized them.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Jackpot-Oakland-decriminalizing-pinball-machines-5565613.php
https://www.stupidlaws.com/?s=pinball
One of my friends spent a few years trying to get his pinball bar in Montreal off the ground, and for the first couple of years it operated in a legal grey zone. Pinball machines have long been associated with gambling in Montreal due to a labyrinth of technicalities, so they were allowed to be licensed for use in arcades only, but not bars or other public venues. He spent a few years lobbying to get the law overturned and was mostly successful.
https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/pinball-punk-montreal-north-star/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/pinball-north-star-montreal-bylaw-1.4062263
There are *still* some bizarre restrictions in place involving permits for machines and annual taxes that can be circumvented by disabling extra balls. I've seen some debates in the local community about it and nobody's been able to truly untangle the legalese surrounding this. It's a little sad not to hear the extra ball reward knocker these days, but it's a small price to pay for knowing my local can still keep on running.
That Roger Sharpe's a cool guy! When pinball in Montreal was effectively legalized, Sharpe and his wife came up to the bar and kicked all our asses. Here's a pic of Adam dressed as Sharpe next to the man himself.
Crazy that you brought this topic back to life yet it was not to post the trailer of the Pinball movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXeVM6jrteU