Inside is the fantasy of kids and overgrown kids everywhere: Row after row of working pinball machines, over a hundred of them. It is housed in a nondescript, white building that could easily pass for a warehouse. This makes it an easy drive, bus or cab ride from the Strip. This pinball museum is located at 1610 East Tropicana, a couple of miles off the Strip and across from where the Liberace Museum used to be. I first heard about the Pinball Hall of Fame a couple of years ago, but didn’t have the opportunity to visit until my last trip. Proceeds from the pinball machines go to charity, most often the Salvation Army of Las Vegas. This is one of the few economic models in the world where you keep most of what you take.”Ĭontact Jason Bracelin at or 70.The Pinball Hall of Fame (also known as the Pinball Museum) was founded in 2006 by Tim Arnold (former owner of Pinball Pete’s in Lansing, Michigan) with his own personal collection of pinball machines.
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We have perpetual rights to use these machines for free once we’ve bought them. “The magic of this place is that we’re selling air. “Now, if Wal-Mart sells $1,000 worth of oats in a day, they have to buy more oats,” he elaborates. “I shut the doors, I come back the next day, the same amount of machines is here.
“Here’s the magic thing: I sell $1,000 worth of a pinball in a day,” he begins. It did well enough to finance a bigger location three years later, which then begat its much larger, current facility a little over a decade after that, It worked: In 2006, Arnold opened the first Pinball Hall of Fame. We have a club handshake and all that.”Īrnold would contribute to the fund by refurbishing old machines and selling them, operating games around town and traveling to pinball conventions to sell raffle tickets and pinball-related items. “You remember the Shriners with the little cars? Yeah, that’s us. “The original intent was to be like a Kiwanis Club or a Lions Club, where after work, guys get together and drink and do stupid (expletive), put hats on and raise money for local social service charities,” Arnold explains. It was like a carnival.”Īround the same time, Arnold would founded the Las Vegas Pinball Collectors Club, which would establish a building fund for the Pinball Hall of Fame. It was really cool to see that many games in one place. “Just to see the amazing amount of people who would line up to come in, and almost every one of them would donate something. “It was very exciting,” recalls Jim Schelberg, publisher and editor of “PinGame Journal” magazine and longtime friend of Arnold’s who used to fly in from Michigan for the “Fun Night” festivities. Related: Pinball Hall of Fame opens in deluxe new digs
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The idea was to raise money for local charities, namely the Salvation Army, through raffles and the sale of “Bags of Junk” full of used pinball parts. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) called it “Fun Night.”Ī few years after relocating to Las Vegas, Tim Arnold and his wife began hosting pinball parties, which eventually drew hundreds to biannual gatherings at the Shed, the 10,000-square foot warehouse Arnold built on his property to house his games. Pinball Hall of Fame owner Tim Arnold still repairs his machines at the new location across from the Welcome to Las Vegas sign on Tuesday, Apin Las Vegas.
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