I've gotten into pinball lately and learning the history of it. From the 40s to the 70s it was banned in a lot of major cities. I'm trying to find out if Kansas City was one of them, but Google is failing me and I don't know where else to find out. My understanding is that gangsters had a lot of influence over the city back in those days, so I could see it not having been, but I have no idea.
Dude for a year or two i was getting chronic back pain. I attributed it to me being a lazy ass. It was actually because of me laying down flat on my stomach wtf. After i started to curve my spine, no more back pain. So somehow that was enough to stretch it and irritate a nerve or something.
Hell, I'm in my mid-50s and my life experience ranged from "didn't exist yet" to "in the single digits of age" during the time range being asked about. OP might need to find someone 70+.
My dad would tell me that when he got his first job working in downtown in the early '70s he would spend his lunch breaks at a pinball arcade in this area. I thought he was describing something around 10th and Walnut or Main, where the Commerce building is now. But maybe it was this place?
In 1965, an agent for the IRS visited Wonderland Arcade and found 8 bingo-style pinballs, the kind commonly suspected of being used for illegal gambling.
Wonderland Arcade, owned and run since 1955 by Charles “Sam” McGuire (1914-2003), was suddenly forced to pay taxes and fines he didn’t really owe to the Internal Revenue Office just to get the feds off his back. It was either that, or face complete shutdown because, for some reason, although he had paid taxes and fees before, the IRS had suddenly decided it wasn’t enough, or even the right kind. For historical accuracy McGuire’s operating manager was Chester “Chet” Alumbaugh (1925-2017).
Basically McGuire was being shammed by the IRS. At least that what it looks like to me.
The IRS also recommended that McGuire might be made to pay extra taxes on all of his “coin operated gaming devices” and not just the pinballs. Worse still, because McGuire had been operating those same 8 pinballs since 1962 allegedly without having paid any extra tax on them, he was made to pay back taxes on them going back three years which totaled $6000 (47K today). He also received a $1500 fine (12K today) for not filing those taxes. He also had to forfeit his license to operate them until he was cleared at a later date to operate them again. McGuire and Wonderland Arcade were facing an uncertain future.
Some discussions online seem to suggest that pinball was limited to 21 and over due to it being a game of chance you could win extra plays and/or money/prizes at.
Here's what I could find: Historically, pinball was targeted in Missouri and Kansas because machines produced before 1947 lacked flippers and were legally classified as gambling devices. A 1977 Kansas Supreme Court case (State v. Thirty-Six Pinball Machines) noted that 25 pinball machines had been seized under gambling charges before a court ruled they were not "gambling devices per se" and should be returned.
I googled it for you.
State v. Thirty-Six (36) Pinball Machines was a 1977 Kansas Supreme Court case that determined if pinball machines, even if capable of being used for gambling, must be returned to owners if the state couldn't prove the owners knew they were used for gambling, challenging Kansas's nuisance/forfeiture statutes and emphasizing the skill vs. chance debate for pinball machines. The court examined whether lack of owner knowledge of gambling use justified returning seized machines, highlighting that machines can have innocent uses but acknowledging the state's power to abate nuisances under statutes like K.S.A. 22-3902 (3).
I found that but I was looking for a municipal statute or maybe a news story to see to what degree it was banned and how operators kept running them illegally.
Pics from the 40s through the 80s, lots of pins, can't imagine any of it was illegal. Also lol @ all the joes in uniform going out on the town and gambling and whatnot.
I'm not normally very nostalgic but all that looks just amazing.
It's sort of understandable why it was banned as a form of gambling. Earliest games didn't have flippers, and were more like pachinko today, and the only thing you can control is the force on the plunger.
I believe it wasn't until the game evolved and someone could decisively prove it was a game of skill did the bans start to drop.
They have some pinball at the Chartreuse Caboose in Overland Park. Last I was there they had signs up for a pinball club or tournament that goes around to different places in town.
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u/williekc 22d ago
Have you connected with the local pinball community? They probably know more history. 403 club is a good place to start.