HISTORYPerfectly Normal Things That Could Have Gotten You Arrested Not Long Ago4 min read

The Mayor Who Declared War on Pinball

The first recognizable pinball machine, the coin-operated Whiffle, appeared in 1931. It looked harmless. To New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, it was a menace. LaGuardia was convinced that pinball was mob-connected — many machines were manufactured in Chicago, which did have organized crime ties — and that it was vacuuming quarters out of children’s pockets.

After Pearl Harbor, he found a new angle: wartime waste. Pinball machines used metal and electricity. America needed both for the war effort. Public sentiment turned. On January 21, 1942, a Bronx court ruled pinball an illegal form of gambling. Police raided shops across the city and destroyed 3,000 machines in three weeks. Chicago and Los Angeles passed similar bans.

“A game of skill, not gambling” — California Supreme Court, 1974, finally putting the question to rest.

New York lifted its ban in 1976. Pinball machines flooded arcades nationwide, suddenly legal, suddenly everywhere. It had taken 34 years to establish that a steel ball bouncing off rubber bumpers was not a criminal enterprise.