Editing Pinball (section)

===Relation to gambling===
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage = [[File:Pinball 3web.jpg|210px]] | video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeFjYDRMggc When Pinball was Illegal, Retro Report Voices], 2:12, [[Retro Report]]<ref name="retro1">{{cite web | title =When Pinball was Illegal… | date =26 October 2015 | publisher =[[Retro Report]] | url =https://www.retroreport.org/video/sex-drugs-and-gore/ | access-date =December 15, 2016 }}</ref> }}
Pinball machines, like many other mechanical games, were sometimes used as gambling devices.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.marvin3m.com/wmswood/index.htm |title=Williams Pinball Machines Woodrail Flipper and Arcade Games 1940s/1950s |publisher=Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum |access-date=October 27, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323172028/http://www.marvin3m.com/wmswood/index.htm |archive-date=March 23, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Some pinball machines, such as Bally's "bingos", featured a grid on the backglass scoring area with spaces corresponding to targets or holes on the playfield. Free games could be won if the player could get the balls to land in a winning pattern; however, doing this was nearly [[randomness|random]], and a common use for such machines was for gambling. Other machines allowed players to win and accumulate large numbers of "free games" which could then be cashed out for money with the location owner.

Later, this type of feature was discontinued to legitimize the machines, and to avoid legal problems in areas where awarding free games was considered illegal, some games, called Add-A-Ball, did away with the free game feature, instead giving players extra balls to play, between 5 and 25 in most cases. These extra balls were indicated via lighted graphics in the backglass or by a ball count wheel, but in some areas that was disallowed, and some games were shipped with a sticker to cover the counters.

Pinball was banned beginning in the early 1940s until 1976 in New York City.<ref name="PopularMecg1">{{cite web | title=11 Things You Didn't Know About Pinball History | date=September 1, 2009 | publisher=[[Popular Mechanics]] | url=http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/toys/4328211-new#fbIndex1 |first1=Seth |last1=Porges | access-date=September 1, 2011}}</ref> New York mayor [[Fiorello La Guardia]] was responsible for the ban, believing that it robbed school children of their hard-earned nickels and dimes. La Guardia spearheaded major raids throughout the city, collecting thousands of machines. The mayor participated with police in destroying machines with [[sledgehammer]]s before dumping the remnants into the city's rivers.<ref name="PopularMecg1" />

The ban ended when [[Roger Sharpe (pinball)|Roger Sharpe]], a star witness for the AMOA – Amusement and Music Operators Association, testified in April 1976 before a committee in a [[Manhattan]] courtroom that pinball games had become games of skill and were not games of chance, which are more closely associated with gambling. He began to play one of two games set up in the courtroom, and – in a move he compares to [[Babe Ruth]]'s home run in the [[1932 World Series]] – called out precisely what he was going to shoot for, and then proceeded to do so. Astonished committee members reportedly voted to remove the ban, which was followed in other cities. Sharpe reportedly acknowledges, in a self-deprecating manner, his courtroom shot was by sheer luck although there was admittedly skill involved in what he did.<ref name="ChicagoReader">{{cite news |title=End Game |last=Porges |first=Seth |url=http://www.chicagoreader.com/pdf/050902/050902_section_1.pdf |newspaper=[[Chicago Reader]] |date=September 2, 2005 |access-date=September 30, 2011}}</ref>

Like New York, Los Angeles banned pinball machines in 1939. The ban was overturned by the [[Supreme Court of California]] in 1974 because (1) if pinball machines were games of chance, the ordinance was preempted by state law governing games of chance in general, and (2) if they were games of skill, the ordinance was unconstitutional as a denial of the [[Equal Protection Clause|equal protection of the laws]].<ref>''Cossack v. City of Los Angeles'', [http://online.ceb.com/CalCases/C3/11C3d726.htm 11 Cal. 3d 726] (1974).</ref> Although it was rarely enforced, Chicago's ban on pinball lasted three decades and ended in 1976.  Philadelphia and Salt Lake City also had similar bans.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/end-game/Content?oid=919800|title=End Game|work=Chicago Reader|date=September 2005|access-date=April 6, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://kotaku.com/5899281/did-you-know-pinball-was-once-declared-illegal|title=Pinball Was Once Illegal|last=Plunkett|first=Luke|publisher=Gawker Media|work=Kotaku|access-date=April 6, 2015}}</ref> Regardless of these events, some towns in America still have such bans on their books; the town of [[Kokomo, Indiana]] lifted its ordinance banning pinball in December 2016,<ref name="ars-kokomoban">{{cite web|title=Game over for law outlawing pinball in Indiana town|url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/12/game-over-for-law-outlawing-pinball-in-indiana-town/|website=Ars Technica|date=12 December 2016|access-date=December 13, 2016}}</ref>and although the law is no longer enforced, [[South Carolina]] still bans minors under 18 from playing pinball machines (SC-63-19-2430).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Code of Laws - Title 63 - Chapter 19 - Juvenile Justice Code |url=https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t63c019.php |access-date=2025-01-24 |website=www.scstatehouse.gov}}</ref>