Law Banning Pinball Shuts Down Retro Arcade

Carlston

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Apr 8, 2008
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SimuLord said:
Carlston said:
Ahh the blue laws. When America pretended to have seperation of church and state 30 years ago they were lying to themselves.

Why is it outlawed? Mafia racket...any proof? Umm no it ahhh makes kids waste time. Who cares that's what kids do...

Ummm God says it's bad? Oh well then, let's shit it all down...

Idiots. Then again I live in a state if you have a motorcycle and saddle bags... and so happen to be a computer tech ect and have wire cutters....

You can be fined 1000 dollars for cattle rustling. Since that is how the law is worded. If you have wire cutters in a saddle bag, which motorcycle bags on the side are call...guess what.


And modern civ crumbles again to some jackass 50 years ago....
There's actually some truth to the mafia thing. Back in the old old days (pre-WW2), pinball was a lot like Japanese pachinko rather than the pinball we know and love today. You pulled the plunger back, the ball hit a bunch of pins (hence the name), then dropped into a slot and you got points. Points could then be redeemed in arcades for prizes like ticket games today.

Except for one small problem---points make an excellent gambling mechanism, and the mafia (which ran the slot machines in New York during the 20s and 30s) caught on. When the anti-pinball laws were passed, they were designed to outlaw the glorified slot machines.

Someone needs to tell the city council of Beacon, NY that "pinball" as worded in their laws applies not to the amusement device with flippers but the slot-style machines.
Correct on all points. Thing is being a bit of arcade nut (working for a arcade them in my teens) Unless you go by the old tickets of chuck e cheese. No arcade would even humor more than a high score board in their place. And even the original pinball games like pachinko had no flippers so it was a one time ball shot to see a score.

Very few proven cases of gambling with a pinball game past 72 ever popped up.

Still it's a silly law that only hurts business. If someone doesn't like pinball or video games the only right the USA gives them is to not play them by choice and teach their children they don't like them. NOT choke businesses with a silly law, with no basis in trust or even in a respectable time frame as now pinball is even less main stream and fairly retro/ignored.

You can only hope someone get a infusion of IQ points and stops this... and another town notices before CNN makes them look stupid and changes their rules to.
 

Wraith22

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I was lucky enough to go to this place back in March. We live 20 minutes away and a bunch of us rented the place for an evening. It truly is a labor of love. Fred Bobrow is one of the sweetest people I've ever met. He knows every inch of those machines. When he saw how much my friends and I were enjoying his life's work he gave us an extra hour free. I saw this story on CNN.com earlier tonight and what bothers me a great deal is nobody around here has done anything. This is about to change. This will not stand.
 

Kuchinawa212

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Apr 23, 2009
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Shit, this is one of those times I'd actually fight the law. Go into cops houses, break fingers, hurt judges...

Multiball shall live muthafucka
 

Orcus The Ultimate

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Nov 22, 2009
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there will always be people who are traditionalists and progressists fighting each other. the thing is to search a right middle.
 

Remy Cambridge

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Wraith22 said:
I was lucky enough to go to this place back in March. We live 20 minutes away and a bunch of us rented the place for an evening. It truly is a labor of love. Fred Bobrow is one of the sweetest people I've ever met. He knows every inch of those machines. When he saw how much my friends and I were enjoying his life's work he gave us an extra hour free. I saw this story on CNN.com earlier tonight and what bothers me a great deal is nobody around here has done anything. This is about to change. This will not stand.
Agreed on all counts. Had I lived in the town, I might've been able to make a serious stink about this too at the city council.

But hell, seems I'm bad at making a stink that people notice. I was pretty sure I was talking about this months ago... http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/6.217655-The-Escapist-Radio-Theater-6
 

instantbenz

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Mar 25, 2009
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so is this like a 'gamers unite: hate mail them council members' post? ... if so it worked because I feel like doing it. I'll go to that cityofbeacon.org link soon enough.

That law is as ridiculous as the 'you can shoot any Native Americans that are canoeing toward your horse-drawn carriage if you can identify they have bows and arrows' law in ND that they haven't gotten rid of.

I play pinball on my phone and I can't play pinball in that one town. Weak sauce.
 

Littlee300

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Oct 26, 2009
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Baldr said:
We can help speed up things:
Go to http://cityofbeacon.org/contact
Tell them constructively how stupid they are. Nothing works faster miracles more than when bad press goes viral.
Ooo you may be the only person that has a post that offers a way to make progress against this :p
I will have to deal with the Mafia in the underground pinball selling business now
.>
Just kidding? o;
 

Therumancer

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Nov 28, 2007
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Hmmm, well I can actually see the logic to be honest. Getting past the old predjudices which might have created the laws, you have to understand that unattended youth is a big issue. Like it or not Arcades attract kids, and that means that they cause kids to hang out or have an excuse for wandering the streets, being able to claim they are going to, or coming from the arcade.

I've talked about this kind of thing before as one of the problems leading to obesity among the youth and other things. As wonderful as "put down the controller, turn off the TV and go outside" sounds, that's simply not allowed in many places without constant adult supervision.

Oh sure, danger from pervs and such are part of the issue of having kids running around unattended, but at the same time people also don't want kids tramping through their yards, making noise on the sidewalks, or even in many places simply riding bikes down the streets at a certain age because kids on bikes can be unpredictable and nobody wants to take the risk of hitting them. If your an older guy of the "you kids get off my lawn" variety, you can probably see why such laws exist, and truthfully as you get older and want peace and quiet, and find screaming kids annoying, all of us will eventually see the appeal in this... and guess who actually votes and will wind up being able to set town policy...

I can't speak for this town in paticular, or what logic it uses, but there are areas I know where things like movie theaters have been an issue, either ones that are open, or someone wants to re-open. Increasingly movie theaters are being moved away from more residential areas, and put into shopping centers and such. This seems to be intentional by those granting the liscences largely because it means that your less likely to see kids trying to walk from their home to the theater on foot (or ride a bike), if they go they are liable to have their parents with them, or be being dropped off and picked up and not wandering around.

There are also issues with things like after school projects that don't take place on school property (with supervision by adults, even when dealing with teens and older kids), Indeed keeping the youth occupied is one of the motivations for people demanding longer school days and perhaps even getting rid of or reducing "weekends" and traditional vacations. For those that don't currently have kids, youth tends to be an annoyance and a worry they don't want to deal with.

All rambling aside, the bottom line is that this varies from town to town, but it doesn't surprise me the law is an issue and taking a long time to resolve. I wish the guy the best, but irregardless of the original logic I'm pretty sure there are plenty of people who don't want that arcade for all the unattended kids it's going to cause to be wandering around if I understand the enviroment right.
 

Knight Templar

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Dec 29, 2007
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Riiight.
Is rock music still illegal here and there? You'd think people would change these laws, even if only to build up political score cards.
 

Drexlor

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Feb 23, 2010
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I feel that there is going to be a massive protest to save this arcade. And there should be.
 

Taddy

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Jan 28, 2010
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I'm sorry but what year are we in again? Last time i checked it was 2010.
 

Mr. Grey

I changed my face, ya like it?
Aug 31, 2009
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Well, this confirms it.

I'm never eating a Hamburger in St. Cloud on a Sunday and I'm not entering my state with a duck atop my head.

[sub]This post is entirely in jest, I sincerely doubt my state will arrest me for that. They may arrest me for entering Wisconsin with a chicken atop my head, however.[/sub]
 

RelexCryo

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Oct 21, 2008
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Maybe these politicians were worried that pinball games would incite feminist violence against balls?
 

Robby Foxfur

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Sep 1, 2009
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Frozen Donkey Wheel2 said:
I'm pretty sure there's another that prevents abuse of stupid laws like that.

But don't quote me on that.
If there isn't i'd so support there being one, sure would stop all of this BS
 

C.Flat

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Mar 3, 2010
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Such a stupid law. How did that ever get passed in the first place??? Were the pinball machines to loud back then??
 

The Rockerfly

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Dec 31, 2008
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No one in their right mind would enforce that law though

Even if they did, why the fuck does it exist? I hate how bureaucratic the law is
 

Wraith22

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Join the group. Send an email. Make a difference in this man's life.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=139564602749976
 

Orange_Clockwork

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Oct 29, 2009
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Take me with you, Tom, we can probably start some sort of whaling company on it. Though, there won't be whales. I suppose we'll just tell tall tales?