Hacker News Reader

So essentially the same fight we use to have over pinball, back when LaGuardia was in office?

Useless fact of the day: Prior to 1947 pinball machines didn't have flippers, making it a game of chance (and yes, people bet on it). Afterwards the flippers it became a game of skill. Just imagine the world if that never happened?

View on HN

Not pure chance, because players could control how far to pull the plunger, and because players could nudge the machine. After the introduction of "tilt" mechanisms (eg: http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=383 ) nudging became an accepted part of the game. It takes great skill to nudge effectively without triggering a tilt.

How (& who) did one bet? Where were pinball machines located?

I was a King Kool master

This is the best article I found about the history of gambling with pinball:

http://www.pinballcollectorsresource.com/russ_files/gambling...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com