When Pinball Was Illegal

Bygone New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia thought otherwise. As he saw it, circa January 1942, “pinball machine pushers were ‘slimy crews of tinhorns, well dressed and living in luxury on penny thievery’ and the game was part of a broader ‘craze’ for gambling,” June writes. “He ordered the city’s police to make Prohibition-style pinball raids and seizures its ‘top priority,’ and was photographed with a sledgehammer, triumphantly smashing the seized machines.”

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