SC law legalizes pinball for youth, ending decades-old prohibition • SC Daily Gazette

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SC law legalizes pinball for youth, ending decades-old prohibition

The law was never enforced, but supporters said it caused anxiety for otherwise rule-abiding business owners

By:<br>Skylar Laird<br>June 17, 2026<br>5:30 pm

Pinball machines line the walls at Radioactive Pinball Arcade in Aiken, S.C., on Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Erin Edwards, Radioactive Pinball Arcade)

COLUMBIA — For the first time in nearly 70 years, children and teenagers in South Carolina can legally play pinball.

A law the governor signed last month removed the arcade game from the list of so-called status offenses outlawed for anyone under the age of 18, following a decade-long effort. The original ban was never enforced, but it remained a source of anxiety for law-abiding business owners, supporters of the bill said.

Pinball gained popularity during the Great Depression as cheap, accessible entertainment — which critics called unskilled gambling tied to crime. Players released a ball that bounced into holes with different scores. Store owners often offered prizes to winners, and onlookers bet on where the ball might land.

Some opponents of the game also worried about children skipping school or spending their lunch money to play or make bets.

It’s illegal for children to play pinball in SC. A bill hopes to change that

In the late 1940s, pinball manufacturers started adding the iconic flippers to the sides of the machines, adding an element of skill.

Still, many states outlawed the games because of their associations with gambling, including South Carolina, which banned the game for minors in 1959.

The new version of pinball with flippers grew in popularity throughout the 1960s and ’70s, even with bans in place. A 1974 California Supreme Court decision classified the game as one of skill and not chance, which led to states removing pinball prohibitions.

South Carolina was the holdout.

Playing pinball remained illegal for anyone under the age of 18, in the same category of offenses as running away, “loitering in a billiard room” or “gaining admission to a theater by false identification.”

Legislation to remove pinball from that list has been proposed repeatedly since 2015, with no luck — until this session.

House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, who sponsored the bill that passed, wasn’t sure why the proposal got enough traction to reach the finish line this year, but he was “glad that it happened,” he said.

The House passed the bill unanimously in February 2025, and the Senate advanced it in a vote of 42-1 in April. It took effect with Gov. Henry McMaster’s signature May 19.

Even though no minors have faced charges of illegally playing pinball, the threat of breaking the law hung over business owners’ heads, Rutherford said.

Bars, especially, don’t want to do anything that could jeopardize their liquor license, he said.

“Now we don’t have to deal with that,” the Columbia Democrat told the SC Daily Gazette.

‘A habitual offender’

During debate in the Senate, legislators divulged their own infractions violating the archaic law, highlighting its absurdity.

When Sen. Ronnie Cromer was young, he spent most of his $20 weekly allowance meant for food and gas on pinball machines, he said. He would wind up eating cheap peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch every day with what he had left over.

Radioactive Pinball Arcade in Aiken, S.C., has around 70 pinball machines running at any time, shown on Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Erin Edwards, Radioactive Pinball Arcade)<br>“That was all we wanted to do, was go play the pinball machines,” the 80-year-old Prosperity Republican said of himself and his friends.

Sen. Ed Sutton, 42, called himself “a habitual offender of this law,” since he often takes his 6-year-old to play pinball at a local brewery. His son likes the machines with the X-Men and Ghostbusters on them.

“I probably violate this law at least once a month, probably — sometimes once a week,” the North Charleston Democrat said.

The one “no” vote in the Legislature came from Sen. Rex Rice, who recalled the days of video poker machines, when a two-word budget amendment in 1986 unexpectedly ushered in an industry legislators then spent years fighting. The 69-year-old was a member of the House when video poker was banned in 2000 through a state Supreme Court ruling.

Although supporters of the bill assured him the two issues had nothing to do with each other, the Easley Republican said he still worried.

“I just don’t want to find out about this later, that we did something we didn’t mean to do,” Rice said.

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‘Bring on the kiddos’

Erin Edwards first learned about the law after applying to lease a city-owned storefront for a pinball arcade. Edwards and her husband were looking to turn the collection of...