retro arcade museum ban?

kerri369

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so i'm watching my local long island news 12 when a story comes on about the retro arcade museum in beacon ny is being threatened by local officials to ban pinball machines. are the owners members here? and if so how did this start? i know pinball was illeagal in new york until the 70's due to the thought that they were considered gambling machines, until a jury proved otherwise (by actually playing a pinball game in the courtroom proving that it was a game of skill, not chance) the report said that beacon officials base the potential ban on pinballs ties to organized crime! any info or feedback would by appriciated!
 
Whether it's skill or chance, you don't win anything at pinball other than a score, so how is that gambling?
 
back when the ban was instituted pinball machines rewarded good players with either tickets or a free game therefore local new york government considered this "gambling"
 

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Didn't the owners come on here and start a thread about this a few weeks ago? I saw it in passing on CNN yesterday, unfortunately the TV I saw it on didn't have sound.
 
I suppose the tickets could then be redeemed for items or money, and I suppose then it would gambling? I'm not sure if skill has anything to do with the definition of gambling.

If something like a pinball machine can be considered gambling then why not redemption machines or claw machines? I think a lot of the redemption machines can even be programmed to only allow a full win if the machine has taken in enough money.
 
back when the ban was instituted pinball machines rewarded good players with either tickets or a free game therefore local new york government considered this "gambling"

It was more than that. Very early machines had a way for someone to reset the extra credits you had racked up. In a venue with an appropriately shady proprietor, you could play pinball, rack up extra credits, then the operator (usually a bartender in a bar) would take off the extra credits by way of a reset switch and give you the equivalent quarters.

Done that way, they very much WERE a gambling machine, which tainted their reputation. The thing that eventually dealt with all of that in most locations was that they ARE a game of skill (demonstrated by Sharpe going into the courtroom and calling shots he was about to make) and by the manufacturers changing them to eliminate credit reset switches, and switch from extra credit to add-a-ball.
 
The owner is on here, and reported this.

Totally sucks, wonder what the real reason they wanna ban them though? Some one in that officials pocket that wants to build a gas station or something dumb I bet!
 
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