Bill would repeal pinball ban

Children under age 18 by Metro law are not allowed to play with pinball machines in Nashville. Councilman Mike Jameson (District 6) wants to get the law off the books.

"I found out that it's illegal for anyone 18 years old or younger to be within 10 feet of a pinball machine," Jameson said. "That seemed a bit old fashioned or archaic.

"I got a call from a guy called Ryan Kaldari whose hobby was restoring old pinball machines, and he was also starting up a youth club downtown and he wanted to furnish the club with among other things these pinball machines until he found out about this ordinance."

The ordinance reads that "It is unlawful for any person having custody or charge of any pinball machine where the same may be operated to permit any minor under the age of 18 years to play, operate or use any such machine or to loiter about the same."

Jameson's bill, which will be introduced on first reading next week and could be passed into law as early as Oct. 5, reasons that "pinball machines are no longer used primarily as gambling devices, but rather as games of amusement" and proposes to delete the current ordinance.

Nashville's pinball ordinance may be one of two remaining laws in the nation that limit the use of pinball machines. The other existing law is in Ocean City, N.J., where it is illegal to play pinball on Sundays.

Jameson said Kaldari did some research on the Nashville law and found that pinball machines were considered immoral in the 1940s. Pinball machines came about in the 1920s and became very popular during the Depression. Initially, the game included cash prices, which made it more of a gambling than merely an amusement device.