Time to lay those quarters down in Oakland, after 80 years of pinball perdition.
Oakland is reversing a law passed in the 1930s which outlawed pinball machines as a form of gambling, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Pinball was considered gambling in Prohibition-era America -- because they were, in fact, bet upon, according to the newspaper.
In those days, machines had no flippers, and so the game was all chance -- no skill.
Flippers came about in the 1940s, and pinball games continued unabated. Police, it seems, had moved onto more pressing matters -- but the law never caught up with the reality.
That means the 13 pinball machines at Hi-Life, a bar in the city's Uptown neighborhood, are technically illegal. Or they will be, until the City Council reverses its pinball ban next week.
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Until next week, Oaklanders can stay legal by traveling the short distance to Alameda, home of the Pacific Pinball Museum.