Pingames and Gambling

Game Info

	Game Listing
	Game Features
	History
	Paper Archive
	Bingo Glossary
	Oddities

Techno

	How They Work
	Common Problems
	Problem Case Studies
	Parts Specs
	Overhaul

Marketplace

	Buying Tips
	Auction Prices
	Parts/Machine Suppliers
	Links

Help!

	Ask Me, Sometimes It Works
	Bingo UK Forums

Pingames and Gambling
Add-A-Balls

With the elimination of the "knock-off button", making it extremely difficult to use flipper games for gambling, one would certainly think that these games would be relatively free from "pressure" from anti-gambling forces. Well, there were still some "crusaders" who thought that pinball (probably because of its gambling connections in the past) was "evil" and should be outlawed no matter what form the games took.

Actually, there was still a way that a skillful flipper game player could make a small "profit" from playing pinball, other than of course, from "side betting". If he was able to "rack up" a large number of replays on a machine he could "sell" them to another player for him to play, instead of the second player actually putting coins into the machine. This could, in effect, make the replays earned by the player (and subsequently sold to a second party) "something of value" which he could "win" resulting from his initial investment ("bet") of the coin he deposited to play the game. Based on this concept, playing flipper games in this manner could be construed by some persons, and possibly courts, as "gambling".

Probably as a result of ideas such as this, and the idea that flipper games were closely related to the "bingo" gambling type games (which also gave replays), "free games" on flipper pinballs were eventually outlawed by some states (such as New York and Wisconsin), and some local jurisdictions as well. So again the pinball industry, even those companies making strictly "flipper amusement games", had to come up with a new type of game to try and recoup the territories lost by such laws.

Flipper - 1960

Well, it was "Gottlieb to the rescue". In 1960 Alvin Gottlieb, son of D. Gottlieb and Co. founder David Gottlieb, who was now working at the plant, had an idea for a new type of flipper game which did not give replays at all, but still provided a "challenge" to the player and an opportunity to "earn" something for his skill at the game. His idea was to give "free balls", rather than "free games", for the player attaining certain scores on the machine. After all, it would be almost impossible for a player to "sell" an extra ball to another player.

Alvin's idea, after the design was perfected by Gottlieb's ace designer Wayne Neyens, became the first of the so-called "Add-A-Ball" games. The company decided to call this game FLIPPER to strengthen in people's minds its identity as a "flipper skill game" and further indicate that it had no connection with the infamous "bingo" machines which had no flippers.

This game, and the many "Add-A-Balls" which followed over the years, had a ball counter which could indicate up to 10 balls. At the start of a game 5 balls were indicated, one being subtracted as each ball was played. When the counter reached zero the game was over. If, however, the player reached one of the pre-set high scores, the counter was incremented by one giving the player an additional ball to play.

These new games won acceptance in many states and localities where "replays" had been outlawed, and states such as New York became known as "Add-A-Ball territories". Many players, who have grown up in such areas, say that playing these machines is "the ultimate challenge in pinball play" because an extremely skillful player can make one game last for quite a while. So, once again, the pinball industry made another step in winning acceptance of pingames in areas where they had formerly met with "legal resistance".

Previous Next