This is the Kader Daily Podcast for Friday, March 17th,

2023. I'm Caleb Brown.

For decades, New York City, among others,

had a ban on pinball under the guise that the games were tools of the mob, promoted gambling, and stole children's lunch money.

Laughable as those claims might be today, it took one plucky young man who himself was something of a pinball player himself

to help New York and other cities see the error of their ways and throw out their bands.

The story of Roger Sharp is told in the new film,

Pinball, The Man Who Saved the Game,

which is in theaters and available streaming today.

I spoke with the directors of the film Austin and Meredith Bragg last week.

We're going to get into sort of the nitty gritty of the film.

I've known you guys for too long.

Too long.

I think that's fair. But this is a policy podcast. We talk about policy here on the Cator Daily podcast.

And tell me about this decades long band that I think most people knew absolutely nothing about on pinball in major

American cities.

Yeah, so the subject of the film is about the pinball band in New York City but it was banned in cities across the country

in fact there are still bands on pinball in many cities today.

Pinball was seen as gambling, a game of luck, not a game of skill.

It was considered to have mob ties.

It was a cash-only business, and the politicians were saving the children

from losing their lunch money to these infernal machines.

...