Did You Know? The Northwest's pinball culture is flipping hot

In honor of the Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show coming up in Tacoma, here's a little pinball history from Seattle and beyond.

The following pinball factoids have been combined from KUOW's Today So Far newsletters from May 31, June 1, and June 2, 2023.

On a recent trip to Los Angeles, something struck me as odd. "Where are all the pinball machines?!" I asked. They were harder to find than I'm used to as a Northwesterner.

Stepping away from our region, it becomes quite clear how lucky we are. The Northwest is a pinball-loving region. It's part of our culture, like hiking, micro brews, and tech. It can be easy to take for granted that wherever you are in Western Washington, you're usually not too far from a pinball game.

In Los Angeles, there are 212 pinball machines. That might sound like a lot, but for a big city like LA (3.8 million people), it's not much. In our smaller city of Seattle (734,000 people), there are 630 pinball machines. That's not counting neighboring towns, like Tacoma (127), or Kitsap County (about 80, if you don't count retired basketball star Todd MacCulloch's garage ... he has enough to host a world pinball championship tournament). Between Olympia and Bellingham, Western Washington has 1,470 machines. Over in the Portland metro area (including Vancouver, Wash., Hillsboro, etc.), there are 921 pinball games.

This is all according to the Pinball Map, the go-to source for finding pinball.

So yes, our region boasts more pinball machines than LA. We also have far more than New York City (242), or Las Vegas, which has 459 (341 of which are located at the Pinball Hall of Fame). And Chicago — the city where most of these games are created and manufactured — only has 290. Indeed, the love of pinball is deep in the Northwest.

Full disclosure: Proposing to my wife involved a trip to a downtown Seattle pinball bar.

Where did pinball come from?

The origins of pinball could be credited to the French who came up with a game called "bagatelle" in the 1600s/1700s (which itself was an evolution of billiards tables and croquette, etc.). This tabletop game involved hitting a ball onto a table with a stick. The table had pins spread throughout as obstacles. The goal was to get a ball past any obstacles and into a hole.

The French brought bagatelle to North America, where it became quite popular in the 1700s/1800s (there's an old cartoon of Abraham Lincoln playing the game). It then went through some evolutions, such as making it smaller and portable, and building a spring-loaded plunger to launch the ball. The ball would be shot up onto the table, hit pin after pin, and hopefully land in a hole. The element of chance was a big part of this version of bagatelle, which placed it in the realm of gambling.

In the 1920s, bagatelle showed up in Japan, where it transformed into another popular game called "pachinko." In the USA, it wasn't until the 1930s that these games started to resemble the pinball machines we know today.

Coin-operated machines were introduced. Electricity propelled its evolution at lightning speed, with bumpers, lights, and bells. The main thing that distinguishes modern pinball didn't come around until 1947 — the flippers. Different games started using flippers at various locations on the board. In the 1950s, they were placed toward the bottom where they have stayed ever since, as the machines continued to advance with electronics and computers.

The flippers removed much of the chance aspect of the game, without removing too much unexpected chaos (which is part of the fun). Whereas bagatelle boards would shoot a ball up, only for it to fall within seconds, modern players can now keep a ball in play for extended periods of time, while going on missions, completing tasks, and more. But due to pinball's roots in games of chance, the game was heavily associated with gambling, which put it in the crosshairs of anti-gambling politicians throughout the 1900s. Pinball was actually illegal in major parts of the USA for many decades. There were even many attempts to ban it in Seattle.

Seattle's pinball history was a blast ... literally

The history of pinball in Seattle is a long, tense tale. Remember: Pinball’s origins were in games of chance (gambling) that were popular among locales associated with vice. That meant politicians wanted to regulate the machines, ban them, malign them, and so forth. It also meant that organizations that peddled in vice (companies, organized crime, and even unions) often shook things up — literally shook things up. There were fights and bombings over these machines.

In the early 1940s, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia famously sent police to raid small businesses and take their machines. He then smashed the machines with a sledgehammer, sending the message that these machines were banned, and delivering a blow to "penny thievery." At the time, LaGuardia argued that pinball was a "racket dominated by interests heavily tainted with criminality" which took money from the "pockets of school children in the form of nickels and dimes given them as lunch money."

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the machines were gambling devices, so Chicago banned them, too. Other major cities followed. WWII happened around this time, and the metals used in the machines were needed for the war effort, so a patriotic sentiment also arose against pinball machines.

Seattle took a different approach. Instead of prohibition, governments have another option when it comes to controversial issues — tax the hell out of them. Seattle set up a tax and fee system for pinball and other machines like juke boxes in the 1940s. It was known as the “tolerance policy.” This replaced Seattle’s previous system — bar owners bribing police officers. During this time, pinball was evolving away from games of chance and into the skilled games we know today. But that nuance was lost on most people.

In the 1950s, two pinball suppliers waged war against each other. The Amusement Association of Seattle (AAS) teamed up with a local union who heavily suggested (aka forced) bars to carry AAS machines. At the same time, Colacurcio Brothers Amusement Incorporated was also intimidating bar owners to take their machines.

In October 1957, someone bombed Century Distributing, a pinball business partnered with AAS. Another bomb went off in January 1959 at Pioneer Card Company. Then a bomb destroyed a car owned by AAS treasurer Fred Galeno in 1960. That same year, mayoral candidate Gordon Newell’s car was bombed; he blamed the incident on his statements around pinball. Also in 1960, Michael Distributing Company, a business associated with AAS, was bombed. During all this, Seattle Mayor Gordon Clinton pushed for a ban on pinball. The council never let any happen, however. After all, there was so much money from those pinball taxes and fees coming in.

Believe it or not, that’s the “brief” history. The full story involves corruption, arrests, under-the-table political payoffs, and (possibly) murder. For further reading, I highly recommend this account on History Link, and this splendid write up from The Seattle Times.

Pinball rose in popularity throughout the 1970s and 1980s; the machines became common in arcades. Their popularity took a dive in the 1990s, as video games took over the market, but they never really went away. They remained in the back of bars, arcades, and in the garages of fans.

In the 2000s, pinball got a replay. Over the past couple decades, more and more pinball games have shown up in arcades, pubs, and elsewhere. The popularity has become so potent in the Northwest, that there are now pinball leagues (akin to bowling leagues) and tournaments happening throughout the region. And there is enough interest to support an annual show at the Tacoma Convention Center, which features hundreds of games for young and old alike.