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.