Criminal interests were said to control a large segment of the industry, and pinball was even linked to the notorious “Murder, Inc.” gang. It didn’t help pinball’s image that most of the machines were manufactured in Chicago, a hotbed of organized crime during the Great Depression. While law enforcement and civic groups looked askance at pinball for its gambling connections, churches and school boards also argued that it corrupted the morals of America’s children by encouraging them to steal coins, skip school in order to play and even go hungry by wasting their money on the frivolous pursuit. Players gambled on games, and operators handed out prizes from free games and gum all the way up to jewelry and chinaware. Except for tipping the machines, players were at the mercy of the random bounce of the ball. Before the advent of flippers in 1947, pinball was a considerably different game from what it is today. Having finally made his shot, the patrolman placed the cigar store’s owner into handcuffs and arrested him for “unlawful possession of a gambling machine.” The arrest was just the latest in a crackdown on one of the perceived scourges of American society in the 1940s-pinball.Įver since pinball came of age during the Great Depression with the production of the first coin-operated machine in 1931, it had been viewed by many as a menace to society. His first five shots ended in frustration, but his sixth try proved lucky as the metallic pellet landed in a hole that won him a free play. The silver orb danced around the tabletop board as the undercover policeman tried to keep it in play. On March 6, 1948, a New York City patrolman in plain clothes entered a cigar store on 106th Street in East Harlem and dropped a penny into a machine called “The Marvel Pop Up.” He pulled back the game’s plunger and launched a small steel ball into play.
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