Throughout the United States, in practically every state, there exist arcane and outdated laws that are still on the books. For example, it’s forbidden for a female to appear unshaven in public in Carrizozo, New Mexico. In Georgia, you can’t keep an ice cream cone in your back pocket on Sundays. And in Illinois, you can drink if you’re under 21, if you’re enrolled in a culinary program.
In Kokomo, Indiana, they are trying to right one such wrong. The city council there is presently working to finally make pinball legal in the town.
It appears that the law was passed in 1955 and it gave police officers the right to impound any pinball machines that they found within city limits.
A news article from the time notes that “the mechanism, it states, tend against peace and good order, encourage vice and immorality and constitute a nuisance.” And goes on to say that “wives whose husbands have gambled away their entire pay checks on pinballs have complained against the devices.”
That said, everyone in town appears to have completely forgotten about the law. People have been playing pinball in Kokomo for years.
So, the city council is now going about the process of repealing the law. If all goes well, by Monday, December 12, 2016, residents will be able to legally play the time-honored arcade game in Kokomo.
Council member Steve Whikehart joked to the local television station about the law and its repeal: “My wife and I have always dreamed that our son would grow up in a community in which pinball was legal. Now that dream will become a reality.”