Legal Niches

A Town Where Pinball is Illegal

By pete_gallagher

The sleepy hamlet of Beacon, located in upstate New York, is not a fan of pinball machines.

A CNN story details the problems a local man had after opening a retro arcade museum in the town. After 18 months of operation, Fred Bobrow was forced to shutter his operation because of an 'arcane' law in town that bans pinball machines within the city limits.

George Mansfield, a member of Beacon's City Council explained how the law may have come about:

Arcades in the '70s may have represented something, you know, maybe, that a community wouldn't want on their main street, or that it would attract a bad, you know, kids or whatever.

While the town, reportedly, is looking into reversing the ban, the City Council is moving very slowly and any changes will not be enacted in time to benefit Bobrow. Beacon Mayor Steve Gold stated, 'Uh, the legislative process really does take its time and council's really looked very closely at all of the letters of the law, and look ahead to the future.'

Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on August 09, 2010 (boomark / email).