Entry No. 1 — the Las Vegas file — filed under: pinball
Pinball Hall of Fame
A nonprofit warehouse of roughly 700 playable pinball and arcade machines from the 1950s through the 1990s, all coin-op and all working, built from the private stash of collector Tim Arnold, who bought his first machine in 1972 and spent decades hunting down and restoring the rest.
The story
Before Las Vegas was completely swallowed by corporate resort holdings, pinball collector Tim Arnold was quietly assembling an empire built on solenoids, rubber rings, and playfield glass. Arnold bought his first machine back in 1972 and spent the subsequent decades tracking down, fixing, and hoarding coin-op history. That obsession eventually materialized as the Pinball Hall of Fame, a massive non-profit warehouse down at 4925 South Las Vegas Boulevard, run under the banner of the Las Vegas Pinball Collectors Club.
You won't find velvet ropes, museum-grade glass cases, or carpeted silence here. The venue houses roughly 700 operational machines spanning from 1950s flipper-less woodrails to 1990s heavyweights like The Addams Family and Twilight Zone. The core philosophy is interactive preservation: every machine is meant to be pounded, nudged, and played until a coil burns out or a spring breaks, at which point the volunteer crew works to get it running again.
Because it operates as a non-profit, the money you dump into the coin slots doesn't end up in a casino pit boss's bonus check. Excess revenue after operational costs gets funneled toward charitable causes, making your lingering quarter addiction feel remarkably easy to justify.
What it's like
Stepping inside feels less like entering a polished Vegas attraction and more like dropping into an enormous, brightly lit storage unit reverberating with bells, chimes, and digital bleeps. Admission costs nothing. You bring cash, feed it into the row of quarter changers, and wander the aisles with heavy pockets. Keep your expectations realistic about mechanical perfection: keeping 700 electro-mechanical relics from the mid-20th century running simultaneously is impossible, so you will run into weak flippers, tilted games, or the occasional handwritten outage sign. Visit on a weekday to avoid waiting for popular tables, and keep a steady supply of physical dollar bills handy for the coin changers.
The move: Bring a roll of quarters and work your way from a 1950s woodrail flipper-less game up through Addams Family and Twilight Zone tables — nothing is roped off, everything is 25-50 cents a play, and the machine you both suck at becomes the running joke of the night.
- 📍 Las Vegas (south of the Strip)
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 4925 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89119
Hours: Added 2026-07-20 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Bliss Dance — Trade the warehouse fluorescent lights and mechanical arcade noise for a 40-foot outdoor steel sculpture lit up along the Strip.
- National Atomic Testing Museum — Pair mid-century electro-mechanical pinball tables with a look at Nevada's Cold War nuclear testing archive just 2.4 miles away near UNLV.
- The Golden Tiki — Follow up a low-tech afternoon of feeding quarters into 1980s games with flaming table cocktails in Chinatown.
Good to know
How much does it cost to enter and play?
Admission is completely free. Games are coin-operated and typically cost between 25 and 50 cents per play.
Do I need to bring my own quarters?
No, but bring paper cash. There are multiple change machines inside that convert cash into quarters.
Are all 700 machines guaranteed to be working?
It is the largest operational pinball collection on display, but because these games rely on aging mechanical parts, a small percentage are usually down for repairs at any given time.
What eras of games are available?
The collection spans four decades of pinball and arcade history, from rare 1950s woodrail tables to peak 1990s solid-state pinball machines and classic arcade cabinets.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · Wikipedia · Reddit
last checked: 2026-07-20