Pinball still against the law in Beacon, NY

[ROM]

My sister sent me this. .

[FHF]

Sucks for that dude!! Looks like a cool place too.

[PinBill]

Thanks for posting this. Can't believe it (although, really, I think I can). This reminds me, is there a CFF twitter address? I tweeted, twatted, whatever the hell'd this and wanted to credit where I heard about it.

Also, I'd love to know about towns where pinball was still 18+. If you guys can think of any off the top of your head I'd be interested. That might make for a fun story to write.

[Legs]

[ROM]

[JDYeager]

Unfortunate conclusion to the Beacon, NY story: The city eventually eased the ordinance banning arcades, but the Retro Arcade Museum couldn't survive the 3-month shutdown....



"WHATEVER the case, the City Council this month passed a new ordinance allowing arcades, under certain circumstances. It was too late."

"Mr. Bobrow says that after being closed for three months and having to repay deposits from customers, he is now broke. He is selling his house and liquidating his collection. The storefront is now one more vacant one, and you can bet that Beacon won’t find a similar attraction to replace the museum."

"It appears that Beacon turned a distinctive attraction into a lose-lose for all concerned."

[ROM]

That's lame. Thanks for bumming us out, JD. Keep it real.

[coyle]

The part I don't get is it looked like he only had maybe four or five pins in there, couldn't of he kept the rest of the arcade open? There is no laws against vintage arcade machines...

[ROM]

Maybe he couldn't figure out how to power off the pinball machines without powering off everything else. Stuff like that can be tough if you're a really dumb person, and maybe he's dumb - dunno.

[ROM]

Yowza. "Mr. Bobrow charged a flat fee for groups from the start and then added a $10-per-hour-per-visitor charge with unlimited plays — more or less on the honor system."

[PinBill]

It seems to me like it wasn't just the pins that were the problem, since the ordinance more generally bans "amusement arcades."I'm not completely at peace with the town official who backs into the "ignorance of the law is no excuse" excuse, but it sounds like the museum owner might have benefited from just a little more legwork The whole episode is sad, but not particularly unexpected in small town America.

[bounceback]

was just in chicago and you still have to register all "amusement devices" with the city there, annual permit, etc; given the hassle of keeping machines running, and the diminishing returns some operators complain about, seems those fees might be the icing on the kill-pinball cake in a lot of places.

it's pretty fucked that all these laws got passed back in the 70s and whatnot, when pinball was everywhere, and never reviewed or revoked as times changed. would be nice to see a national body working to repeal some of that bullshit, get exemptions for pins, etc.-- especially in chicago. there's very sparse ball there, per capita, and to me it's fucked that stern & the IFPA aren't able to do more in their own backyard. i know it's an uphill battle at this point, but worth it.

[JDYeager]

[inthecan]

I recently got a bit of an inside scoop when a friend from NY who recently visited Portland, he knew quite a bit about this whole case and says the troubles really started when the arcade operator started having a few disputes with his landlord, everything was fine till he pissed this guy off who then did some research and discovered that he could effectively shut the guy's business down. A real bummer but a word to the wise in regards to maintaining good relationships with those who hold the leash.

[inthecan]

I forgot to add that the arcade operator apparently used to work for CNN, which totally would explains why he was able to get such great coverage for a story that would normally be completely overlooked, probably much to the shame of Beacon N.Y.