As incredible as it is to imagine, until a recent vote a small town in the United States of America had outlawed arcade machines. Thankfully, that vote has now been held, and… hey, wait a minute, arcade games are still banned?
Yes, even harder to imagine than placing the restriction in the first place is the fact the tiny hamlet of Marshfield, Massachusetts last month voted to maintain a ban on arcade games, which has been in place since 1982.
At an open town meeting, the same kind which brought the banning into effect nearly 30 years ago, a motion to repeal it was defeated by a margin of 655-554.
So why are arcade games still banned? The town has fears it will attract the wrong kind of people, that they’ll have an adverse effect and, most importantly, that bringing in arcade video games will “open the door to adult entertainment”.
All perfectly understandable objections! Were this 1692, and the machines about to be burned at the stake.
This is actually the second time citizens of Marshfield have sought to have the ban overturned, with a vote in 1994 also coming up short.
Marshfield Town Meeting upholds ban on coin-operated gaming machines [Wicked Local, via Yahoo]
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