I wonder if much of this a reflection of how bad the prevailing culture considers gambling to be. In many ways it seems that there’s more general tolerance of gambling, and it’s undeniable that there is a great deal more legalized gambling than there was in the 1970s. OTOH, there seems to be less tolerance of informal gambling, like office sports pools. I’ve only ever worked in the L.A. area, so it may be a regional thing, but I remember that betting pools for major sports events, or even every NFL game in a season, used to be commonplace until sometime between the mid 1990s and early 2000s–then it all stopped. I can’t remember exactly when this happened, or even which company I worked for, but I remember some kind of announcement going out in the office. I seem to remember also that there was some kind of new Federal statute which had something to do with this, though the statute didn’t specifically address gambling. I think it was before Sarbanes-Oxley though.
I remember a Korean War vet telling me about “Pachinko” machines and that bars would sell you metal balls for $5 each to play. If you landed the ball into a jackpot, the payouts were in more metal balls, which you would/could sell back to the house.
I never remember Bally’s machines being gambling, but by the time I started playing, the backstops had Hugh Heffner’s hands down the backs of two girl’s bikinis.
(I always thought the sound when you popped a game was one of them slapping the living sh-t out of him)
Pachinko is very popular in Japan (but not in Korea), and is very similar to slot machines. Here’s a collection of pictures that I’ve taken of the outsides of pachinko parlours – though I’ve not been inside one, because they are too noisy!
It is a little known fact that the pinballs were sent directly to a munitions factory and installed in anti-aircraft shells which were then shipped to the European theater of WWII. Occasionally German troops would capture AA sites and, as supplies were always short, use the guns against allied aircraft. One such pinball, in one such shell captured by the Germans and fired at an RAF fighter squadron brought down a certain Captain Walker. The rest is history.
Who?
You’re not going to follow him any of those ways (although you think you must…)
We’re not gonna take it, never did and never will
Yes.
Not Yes. Who.
Guess Who.
Guess Who?
Third base.