How Pinball Conned America | Nostalgia Nerd

Visit www.totalav.com/nerd70 to get 70% off sponsor TotalAV Today! ~ Welcome to a video about the sea, a video about loss, a video about slot machines, a video about pinball machines. This is a historical look at gambling machines, the sea, pinball and the great pinball ban in America. It's journey, just make sure you have a lifeboat.
This video was scripted and edited by ‪@octaviusking‬
Alternative Titles:
Why were Pinball machines banned in America?
Why Slot Machines are under the sea
America Pinball Ban
00:00-23:55 Pinball!
23:55-24:50 TotalAV
24:50-29:10 More Pinball!
🔗Video Links🔗
EARLY PINBALL GAME en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball...
FORTUNA GAME AT MEDIA MUSEUM - WIKIMEDIA COMMONS commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
IMPROVEMENT TO BAGATELLE BALLS SHOOTER PATENT patents.google.com/patent/US1...
BAFFLE BALL en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baffle_...
WHIFFLE BALL AD www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=35...
Bolo Board www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=340
Stevo-ball www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2375
Priscilla Dean in Outside The Law 1920 film archive.org/details/OutsideTh...
Chicago in 1936 archive.org/details/0994_Chic...
• New York City Mayor La... LaGuardia smashing up slot machines
pinball.fandom.com/wiki/Roger... Roger Sharpe showing councillors the game
www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=13... Baffle Ball - IPDB
www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=12... Humpty Dumpty board -IPDB
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagatel... BAGATELLE BOARD - WIKIMEDIA
archive.org/details/silent-ep... Episodes in the Life of a Gin Bottle - ARCHIVE
archive.org/details/NewsOfThe... - News of the Day 1937
ia800902.us.archive.org/21/it... St Paul police detectives
archive.org/details/Gamblingw... Gambling with Souls film 1936
www.loc.gov/item/00694394/ New York subway in 1905
www.replaymag.com/roger-sharp... Roger Sharpe demonstrating (photo from Replay magazine)
picryl.com/media/mayor-la-gua... LaGuardia in 1937
picryl.com/media/playing-the-... 1941 pinball being played in Pennsylvania
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[@ataribowlingcgc4465]

I have a flipperless pinball in my basement called Bally Attention that was in the Brooklyn Naval Yards when LaGuardia banned pinballs and ordered them all dumped into the Hudson River. Two sailors caught wind of this and hid the machine in the back room of a candy store in the area where it stayed for 60 years until the candy store closed and the owner discovered the machine in the back. I bought and restored the machine,

[@DjAle1]

That's awesome

[@thedave7760]

Was there any candy in the machine? Did you get to taste it?

[@Spudcore]

Was there meant to be more after that comma? What's it like to play?

[@ehrenloudermilk1053]

Name checks out

[@notsyzagts7967]

@@Spudcore There are demonstration videos of these machines on KZbin. Search for "flipperless pinball."

[@cs8712]

1940: we need to protect kids from gambling 2023: loot boxes for kids are ok

[@Solaceon]

To be fair, the US has started to crack down on them lately. It's why a lot of games that used to have them don't have them anymore.

[@p_mouse8676]

In parts of the world paid loot boxes are illegal in games.

[@sb6482]

have a bang on that you mug!

[@MrPaxio]

@@Solaceon no they haven't, lol, and if they did, they're about a decade late

[@ExtraThiccc]

​@@SolaceonThe worst country on earth isn't doing shit, we're too busy banning women from using the women's restroom and making it illegal for people to dress as a different gender

[@BonJoviBeatlesLedZep]

I'm in Trinidad and Tobago and I was born in 1998. I've played in many arcades, I still remember smoking sections, malls are still bustling and successful here. I've never seen a pinball machine in my life. I thought pinball was just a computer game like in Windows XP until I was like 12.

[@BonJoviBeatlesLedZep]

@RightHandReaper Well I've never seen one in real life! But I must have seen one on a show and been like "huh guess it's a real game"

[@BlueCrayon77]

The tokens dispensed by the Safe Cracker machine could actually be put back into the machine to launch a different play mode called Assault The Vault.

[@DST.73]

Assault *On The Vault

[@BlackHoleForge]

I have watched severaldifferent documentaries about pinball. I can honestly say this is the first time someone has explained how it got the name pinball. Well done mate 👍

[@BlueCrayon77]

For anyone not familiar with pinball but wants to get into it (probably a video game version)... the best and easiest tip to improve your playing is the Dead Flip! Basically it's where you intentionally don't flip the flipper, but you let the ball bounce off the 'dead' flipper. You quickly get used to when doing this is a good idea, and you wrestle that ball back under control. It will often lead to the ball bouncing across to the other flipper where you can easily trap it for a nice considered flip.

[@Tamarocker88]

Yep! My favorite tip is for someone to cradle a ball with the flipper and try nudging to feel how it affects the ball. Then see if they can do a post pass. Once you get familiar with the feel, it almost feels like cheating!

[@DGK2K1]

Abe Flips is also good for basic flipper skills.

[@Renville80]

I do that sometimes, but with the flipper raised. Also, if you get the timing exactly right and release the flipper at the moment of contact, you can literally suck all the momentum out of the ball!

[@herbiehusker1889]

Normally I only throw my used car batteries in the ocean, but I'll throw an arcade machine in for good measure.

[@herbiehusker1889]

@@fathersunglasses6085 it's fine. How else would you recharge all those electric eels?

[@fathersunglasses6085]

@@herbiehusker1889 🤣

[@klausstock8020]

@@fathersunglasses6085Yes indeed. Thanks to all these shoot-em-up arcade games dumped into the ocean we now have killer whales. Well, still beats school shootings caused by these games.

[@waleswideman1]

Forgot about that meme

[@liamodell7191]

I hope you get the chance to experience the joy of owning a real 1980's (or early 90's) solid state pinball machine. I have two. A Bride of Pinbot and William's Fire. My brother use to buy damaged pinball machines, restore them and resold the ones he didn't want to keep. He has a Stern Sea Witch I would love to buy from him. Digital pinball is nice but will never compare to an actual pinball machine. Other machines I would love to own is a Gottlieb Black Hole, Haunted House, Circus Voltaire and Elvira Scared Stiff.

[@PolygonAlchemist]

There needs to be an arcade or a bar at LaGuardia Airport with a few pinball machines, just out of spite.

[@LarixusSnydes]

First of all: I love a good game of pinball (with flippers!) now and then. I even wrote a software table in Visual Basic Script for the Visual Pinball platform based on my favourite comic strip. LaGuardia had a point with the payout machines being rigged to fleece you.The modern equivalent Pachinko in a so-called Pachinko-parlour is a sorry sight in my eyes. You see rows upon rows of people in front of "their" machine looking like zombies as they put coin after coin in the machine mindlessly watching as the metal balls ploink from pin to pin while the players are blasted by dazzling visual effects when they "score" points. The inserting of token coins is the only active part in "playing" Pachinko, except grabbing the occasional pay-out in tokens.

[@gwgux]

Huh, I had no idea pinball had such a crazy history!

[@tipulsar85]

Pinball in the Seattle area has been legal, as long as the table is just for points. I grew up with them, and still to this day still enjoy the odd round in Pinball Arcade, as it is far cheaper than owning some of the tables I would like to have a physical version of. One of those tables being Doctor Who by Bally-Williams, and another being Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure by the same company

[@MrTaxiRob]

T2 has to be my all time fave. LOAD THE CANNON!

[@pinballwiz45b]

Pinball Arcade never got Indiana Jones. Pinball FX did.

[@tipulsar85]

I know, FX also got Space Station as opposed to Space Shuttle.

[@DGK2K1]

Seattle has a massive pinball community and tons of tournaments

[@tdtrecordsmusic]

luv that app ! wish it was still in dev !! I hold on to it dearly

[@th0rbjorn]

@Nostalgia Nerd The tokens that Safe Cracker dispenses can be inserted on a special token slot on the face of the machine. This triggers the 'wizard' mode.

[@bubbadmatt8124]

Love that outro song. Arcades and pinball spots are hard to find here in rural southwest Indiana. Luckily in nearby Evansville there's now a bunch of places to go. That's only a recent phenomenon mind you. Still tho, I miss the good ol days of the mall and strip mall arcades. The kinds they have now are just ticket redemption crap. 😢 Never gonna happen but if I ever won the lotto (big national one, not the smaller state version) I'd want to create an actual arcade and amusement tech museum. Couldn't hold all of the games it's just not possible, but I would like to showcase the technology that went into it in order to preserve that knowledge for future generations. Plus I'd want to see if it's possible to start a CRT production facility.

[@joanfan6324]

Has anyone tried finding the machines that were thrown in the water?

[@MuscarV2]

I just finished watching "Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game", and the first thing I see when I open youtube is this video. Good stuff!

[@BlueCrayon77]

Weird eh! I only just watched that last week... and here I am.

[@notsyzagts7967]

@@BlueCrayon77 KZbin always recommends a similar video to one you recently watched. Congratulations on following the algorithm.

[@iivin4233]

I'm sitting here at minute 12 realizing that ticket-paying arcade machines can be gambling machines but get around restrictions by paying out tickets.

[@SergioLeonardoCornejo]

Took you this long to realize? I realized thanks to Pachinko.

[@MesaAufenhand]

Wait until you found out about lootboxes

[@gariko]

Now you have to start thinking about Skill testers and UFO catchers

[@mycosys]

Go watch a pachinko documentary

[@verzocktes]

That's why they are 18+ in Germany haha

[@ChristianBehnke]

Massive nostalgia moment with the "twelve" song at 1:33! That takes me back.

[@saintuk70]

What Aquaman does in his spare times.

[@Entr0py404]

I read your comment as "what does Aquaman do in his spare time?", was looking for the read more or comments for the punchline 😅

[@billkeithchannel]

I remember the first time I did really great at pinball in the mid 1970's. I was a pre-teen and my family was at a restaurant and they had a pinball that ran on dimes. I had racked up a lot of free games by playing all four players myself. When we went to leave with the won credits still on the game he came over and turned the game off then on and handed me a couple dollars for the credits.

[@quintessenceSL]

To be fair, America has always been quite puritanical, despite it's proclamation of FREEDOM! I live in a dry county (still), which would just dumbfound an Englishman.

[@K9arcade]

Another fun video from Nostalgia Nerd. Loved looking into the history of Pinball. I'm more for arcade machines but do enjoy all the amusement games and what they can offer. This video further inspires me with my own video projects so I'm grateful.

[@jafwilding]

I’m a seaside town near me, an arcade purchased a South Park pinball machine, around the time that the show was becoming popular. The first time I used it, Mr. Hankey had popped out of the toilet. When I went back, a few weeks later, the toilet opened, but all that popped out was a metal bracket. The arcade owner had clearly instructed the handyman to remove Mr. Hankey from the playfield.

[@spladam3845]

Wow, Peter, your virtual PB table is beautiful, well done, I really want to start that project soon.

[@MAGA_Patriot2024]

Best of luck to you! I've had one for over 5 years, and I still love it! 😊

[@GameOfDepth]

The Coin in Safecracker would activate a SUPERGAME mode on the machine. They were quite the collectable. Good show!

[@vaderaguk]

Great video, but title was a bit of a con... Arcade Machine != Pinball Machine

[@HeroQuestFans]

now with microtransactions we're back to games shilling gambling to kids again...

[@dwaynezilla]

I'm working toward getting my U.S. Kinder Egg Carry (KEC) license

[@Siska0Robert]

Be careful, man! With great power comes great responsibility.

[@kiwirocket64]

Yes, speaking of pinball I learned about how bowling used to be banned as well. It’s really interesting and like it wasn’t unbanned until the 60s or some thing it’s really interesting you know which is weird.

[@anasevi9456]

27:49 Don't threaten me with a good time!

[@flippersteinschmatz]

In Austria we have a great museum with 118 Pinball Machines - it is called "Eitle Kinderkram Neulengbach"

[@dextrose42]

Some things of note: There were some flipperless machines that had slot machine style arms on them to pay out (OD Jennings Sportsman for example). Also, look into bingo machines.

[@FirstLast-vr7es]

If LaGuardia had REALLY been interested in banning gambling in NYC, he'd have shut down the New York Stock Exchange. Not a peep on that one though.

[@Jakepearl13]

The regulation of pinball reminds me a bit of how bowling used to be associated with gangsters and racketeering,until the 50s where it got heavily sanitized and became a common pastime (for the better,in my opinion)

[@mikedrop4421]

We welcome you back good sir! Edit: My dad got himself a used pinball machine when I was a little kid back in the 80's. I loved playing with it. And his atari 2600. Funny he kinda stopped playing games in the 80's and I kept on loving games and tech. Oh man that pinball counting animation hit all the nostalgia feels. I haven't seen or heard that in 30+ years but I can't get it out of my head now

[@raymoreton3184]

my fav pinball is on the amiga - pinball dreams - nightmare table, with the volume turned right up it sounds amazing.

[@Dazdigo]

There are a lot of arcade games that give out tickets are rigged. Even the claw machines are rigged. I wish I knew that when I was a kid.

[@JPMonteith]

I like the one dollar coin slot in the video on that pinball game. Unlike the one pound coin in Britain, it is flippin' hard to find one dollar ones used anywhere in the USA. They do exist, but there are precious few in circulation.

[@Robocopnik]

I love when the government just transparently embraces the fact that they're literally nothing other than the biggest racket there is. The honesty is refreshing, y'know?

[@Tamarocker88]

Awesome! Any plans to mod your ALP? The OTG experience with VPX, Zaccaria PInball in Steam, and Pinball FX3 are all fantastic. It's a lot of work to get set up just right, but it's worth every minute.

[@ClassicGameSessions]

Fascinating pinball video, good stuff! 👍

[@benjamink1403]

Now we have pinball machines AND guns! A true win-win

[@user-nq9xe7np8z]

Still no kinder eggs unfortunately

[@JourneyPT]

Very cool and well researched. ❤

[@coyoteartist]

I had read many years ago some of the history of pinball and that there were laws concerning the gambling element. It wasn't until I sawr a story on Mysteries at the Museum that I learned about the New York City ban and I quite agreed with the ider behind it. Sad that one has to agree with a ban on something one loves because we can't have nice things.

[@greenhowie]

One of these days I'm going to watch a Nostalgia Nerd video and the subtitles are going to be exactly what he says. I just know it.

[@psil0cibin89]

My mom managed a few bars in a small town back when I was a kid in the 90's. ALL the bars in town had pinball machines that would payout. The way it worked was you would collect points by doing certain things in the game and the counter would go up and it also had some sort of slot mechanics as well. I dont remember the exact conditions you had to hit before a payout would happen but I do remember you were paid based off the number on the counter. For example if the counter said 100 you were paid 10 dollars. The Pennsylvania liquor control board would occasionally come in and raid the businesses to see if they had machines that people were gambling on. Most of these bars had video poker as well. When the PLCB would hit one bar it would call and warn all the other bars that they were in town and everybody would scramble to hide the machines quickly.

[@MrMarkalroberts]

The irony of getting one of those “get rich quick” adverts from KZbin in the middle of your excellent documentary!

[@negativ-dekadent]

This honestly was THE video in a couple of years, that taught me so much about something I love and yet never knew! Thanks!

[@angusmcnay5449]

This is perfect, I was just thinking about bagatelle a few hours ago

[@eightcoins4401]

As an european, some context to the Kinder Egg anecdote. First of, the FDA used to consider any candy with toys inside a safety hazard. This got changed, but to be safe Ferroro changed the toy holding capsule to contain breathing holes. Alledgly said breathing holes meant people could easily smuggle drugs in the capsules by swallowing them though. I dont know how much of the last part is urban legend and how mcuh is true though.

[@mack.attack]

1:59 kinder eggs are banned because there are no guns in them

[@polocatfan]

honestly screw arcade owners for not fighting this sooner and just letting their stuff get thrown away like that.

[@venomdust1]

1:32 old school Sesame Street . Although he is not in the clip RIP Mr Hooper big bird can’t torment you anymore 🙏🏼

[@Switcher1972]

Another good movie to add on my watchlist - I learned A LOT with this video, thx.

[@EeekItsSnek]

First ever video from someone, not from Washington, who managed to pronounce "Spokane" correctly. That's almost as impressive as this video.

[@DM01710]

Flippin Great Episode ! Thank you Nostalgia Nerd

[@ed.puckett]

Thank you, this was a fun episode, and educational!

[@NigelDraycott]

Excellent story, thoroughly enjoyed it.

[@MiTBender]

1:32 Extreme nostalgia ❤

[@NegativeReferral]

It's interesting to think that in the 70s, if you wanted to make a kid in a movie look rebellious or carefree, you'd show them in front of a pinball machine at the local pizza joint. Never mind that nowadays, pinball almost seems like something very straight-laced, some good clean fun to be had. It's like chewing gum - something that was once seen as trashy, rude on principle, piggish, or perhaps unladylike - used in cinema for some time to suggest a rebellious (for better or worse) persona, only for it to become ordinary - perhaps a personal sensory choice or a way to freshen your breath - not something that is supposed to convey subtext about the character.

[@ZugPlayz]

If you're a game collector, just go to the ocean to get rare games. edit: the context is that the video name was "millions of arcades machines are underwater"

[@SergioLeonardoCornejo]

Nay. You'll only find an artificial reef.

[@Christopher-N]

In a way, this goes back to when slot machines had to become fruit machines to avoid gambling laws. It wasn't too long ago that collectable card games like _Magic: The Gathering_ were banned from school because cards could be anted up (if the players elected to do so), thus a form of gambling.

[@neilsimpson79]

Has Peter launched a Kickstarter with the goal of fixing up someone else's boat to try and find these machines at sea but still make the backers pay to play them yet?

[@kevinbarry71]

There is an episode of the honeymooners TV show, which was filmed in the 1950s, which shows Ralph playing a pinball game in New York City. And that is where the show was filmed

[@jwillisbarrie]

Thanks for adding actual captions for the Deaf

[@Slash0mega]

wow, that pinball ban actually made sense at the time!

[@bentbilliard]

Meanwhile... In-App Purchases. Nothing has changed.

[@alanfike]

Rad outro song. Felt like I was watching the end credits to an '80s summer blockbuster.

[@BuzzaB77]

oooooo timing, I was just discussing a purchase of that atgames machine this weekend. I already have the arcade and love it.

[@EternalGamingNet]

Amazing video, very interesting!

[@SpaghettiEnterprises]

9:09 Lol Cyrillic etymology stock footage

[@valley_robot]

Very interesting documentary, thank you for this free content

[@F7GOS]

... Precisely the reason I declined a recent works trip to York.... Just in case...

[@elessal]

that mayor was ahead of his time. he should have been sent to the future to give cement shows the board members who promote lootboxes and pay-to-win mechanics in videogames, and throw them in the sea.

[@hullinstruments]

The police needed to raid LaGuardia's pantry and kitchen cabinets. Which was obviously more dangerous for him feeding his fat face and pose more of a threat than the "gamblers". Good to know the cop's would just go along with any crazy thing.... with zealous malice... Who could have ever guessed

[@sergeant5848]

Horrific to think about the loss of, what now would be, collectable vintage/classic pinball cabinets. They'd probably be worth 1000s.

[@andresbravo2003]

I would need Legends Pinball to do this.

[@kilotangosierra]

the irony is that later on when the Mortal Kombat 2 arcade machine came along, they programmed it to cheat against the human player..and got away with it. no dodgy wiring needed there!

[@steel8231]

Kinder eggs are banned in the US because of a law that says you can't put inedible objects inside food, the objective being to reduce choking hazards. We do have Kinder Joys though, which have the treat in a different compartment than the toy.

[@maybeitsneato]

Perhaps if they put assault rifles in Kinder eggs the US would make them legal again.

[@georgehill8285]

NYPD still smashes stuff they don’t like. They ran a commercial about a year ago showing them smashing motorized bicycles.

[@BuzzaB77]

I phoned my mate in North Korea, I asked how he was, he said "ah ya know, can't complain"

[@UltimatePerfection]

Don't you think Spongebob deserves some arcade goodness?

[@danieldougan269]

As a lifelong American, I had never heard the word tinhorn before either.

[@TheEpicLifeOfJacob]

Reading the title of this video to the tune of SpongeBob SquarePants is fun!

[@soulfullofhope7339]

Have you done a video on Dollz, from the late 90s. Internet paper dolls. It was extremely cool back then, kids would print theirs off and bring them to school to show off and put in the special clear sleeve on the front of the binder. ❤

[@gonzaloNMF]

Excellent episode.

[@Eric64]

The Who movie, Tommy, was released in 1975. It heavily featured pinball and contained the 1969 song, Pinball Wizard. I wonder if that didn’t influence lifting the NYC ban in 1976.

[@more.power.]

Thank you excellent video. Cheers

[@TheStevenWhiting]

9:30 we had one of those in the 80s. Never liked it but had nothing else to play that was similar.

[@klausstock8020]

8:15 Naturally, they would ban kids from playing "Billiards, Bagatelle, or any other game" in Jackson County, GA. To keep them safe and happy, children worked in the textile industry instead.

[@erichobbs4042]

Oakland CA is home to a real cool Pinball museum. They have a ton of machines from the 60's to modern ones. My favourite ever is still The Black Knight.

[@sgtjitters8980]

The benfold place at Vegas is dope as hell you should try it out, they don't give out tickets, but you get a ton of free games

[@box-botkids3267]

I'm impressed that the Brit narrator knew how to pronounce 'Spokane'. Most Americans can't get it right.

[@KOTYAR0]

Thank you so much for allowing me to listen to this, this is a feast for the ears

[@maeganmonster]

A few years ago we did get kinder eggs in the US

[@McHaro0079]

Nonononono... those are not called Kinder eggs 1:58. Those are called Kinder's Surprises, as in, Surprise! You are under arrest!

[@justawfulgamer7738]

The government has no business in telling me if I can gamble or not.

[@jaysoosbeans]

No wonder people are throwing car batteries into the ocean. They want the fish to play games, too.

[@alexmoran7337]

Really glad you're back!

[@MaxStax1]

I always loved pinball so this was fun to watch.

[@nilus2k]

Laws around coin operated games are still a thing in the US. I know a couple local retro arcades in the Chicago suburbs who had to go to entrance fee/free play system because they couldn’t get the gaming license required to allow Coin op play.