--- description: The ban hadn't been enforced in decades, but it's still on the books. title: Oakland Finally Un-Banning Pinball image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1fbeaed503ec96d1/698698dbcd804d66c3ccb9b1/pinball.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # California Town that Banned Pinball 80 Years Ago Will Finally Legalize It by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 23, 2014 6:40 PM CUT  Three year old Xandro from Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the youngest participant of the Dutch Pinball Open on October 4, 2009 in Veldhoven, The Netherlands. 150 participants from all over Europe fight for the title. The tournament is organised by the Dutch Pinball Organisation. AFP PHOTO:ANP ED OUDENAARDEN netherlands out - belgium out (Photo credit should read ED OUDENAARDEN/AFP/Getty Images) Three year old Xandro from Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the youngest participant of the Dutch Pinball Open on October 4, 2009 in Veldhoven, The Netherlands. 150 participants from all over Europe fight for the title. The tournament is organised by the Dutch Pinball Organisation. AFP PHOTO:ANP ED OUDENAARDEN netherlands out - belgium out (Photo credit should read ED OUDENAARDEN/AFP/Getty Images)AFP / Getty Images by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 23, 2014 6:40 PM CUT And here you thought games like _Mortal Kombat_ and _Grand Theft Auto_ had it rough: 80 years ago, pinball — yes, _pinball_ — was a seedy, controversial business. So controversial that thousands of U.S. cities passed laws making pinball machines illegal, including Oakland, California, where you might be surprised to find the game remains a criminal matter on the books to this day. That’s about to change, [says the San Francisco _Chronicle_](http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Jackpot-Oakland-decriminalizing-pinball-machines-5565613.php "undefined"), which writes that Oakland is set to formally un-ban pinball at last, though it’ll be seen as a symbolic move: pinball machines are alive and well across the city, notes the _Chronicle_, and the ban hasn’t been enforced for decades. Pinball machines (sans flippers — a later invention) were manufactured in the 1930s, installed in bars and called “pay-outs,” because that’s what they did, delivering cash to lucky players a bit like someone hitting the jackpot after pulling the handle on a slot machine. That’s all you did at the time: pull the plunger and cross your fingers. If you won, you’d collect your winnings from whomever ran the establishment. And that slot machine-like angle was enough to worry politicians and get pinball banned across the country. “Yes, there was a certain amount of skill involved, but basically the law looked at it as a gambling device,” Eddie Adlum, publisher of _RePlay Magazine_, told Steven Kent in Kent’s [_The Ultimate History of Video Games_](http://www.amazon.com/The-Ultimate-History-Video-Games/dp/0761536434/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403545729&sr=8-1&keywords=history+of+video+games "undefined"). “Pay-outs started out legally in many states and eventually ended up being operated mostly illegally in places where the police would look the other way, such as New Orleans. They were nickel games, by the way. They paid off in nickels. So it was a little gamble, but nevertheless it was gambling.” Oakland’s city council will meet this week to reverse the law as part of an overall reexamination of gambling in the city, though that reversal will include a new ban on slot-machine-like [Internet sweepstakes cafes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweepstakes%5Fparlor "undefined"), which — like those early versions of pinball — are essentially games of chance. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2912494/california-town-that-banned-pinball-80-years-ago-will-finally-legalize-it/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2912494/california-town-that-banned-pinball-80-years-ago-will-finally-legalize-it/"},"headline":"California Town that Banned Pinball 80 Years Ago Will Finally Legalize It","datePublished":"2014-06-23T18:40:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:36.855Z","description":"The ban hadn't been enforced in decades, but it's still on the books.","url":"https://time.com/2912494/california-town-that-banned-pinball-80-years-ago-will-finally-legalize-it/","keywords":["Tech","California","Games","oakland","legal","Ban"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1fbeaed503ec96d1/698698dbcd804d66c3ccb9b1/pinball.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Matt Peckham","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/matt-peckham/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1fbeaed503ec96d1/698698dbcd804d66c3ccb9b1/pinball.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Three year old Xandro from Eindhoven, Th","caption":"Three year old Xandro from Eindhoven, Th","creditText":"AFP / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2912494/california-town-that-banned-pinball-80-years-ago-will-finally-legalize-it/","name":"California Town that Banned Pinball 80 Years Ago Will Finally Legalize It"}}]}] ```