Pinball Banned in LA!

…back in 1940, that is.

Above: Primitive pinball repair techniques often resulted in disastrous consequences.

Look closely at those games (larger image after the jump) and you’ll notice there’s no flipper buttons.  Pinball was mostly a game of luck back then.  It might seem strange that pinball was banned for several decades in most major cities, but they were in fact used for gambling.

From the LA Times Archive:

Mayor Bowron and his Police Commission urged the adoption of the anti pin-ball law on the grounds that the machines are used for petty gambling, so widespread that the police are totally insufficient in number to enforce the law.

The rest of the article and bonus pic here.