Jul 20, 2021 21:00:00

The world's largest pinball museum 'Museum of Pinball', which became a Guinness record, will be closed, and after the closure, it will be a cannabis cultivation facility

On July 20, 2021, the IT news site Ars Technica reported that

the museum of Pinball , a non-profit museum that houses more than 1,100 pinball and arcade games, was closed. The museum plans to auction its game consoles in the future.

The massive Museum of Pinball is closing its doors for good | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/07/a-look-back-at-the-museum-of-pinballs-huge-collection-of-games/

Pinball museum cancels plan to move from Banning Palm Springs
https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/2021/06/20/pinball-museum-cancels-plan-move-banning-palm-springs/7758137002/

The Museum of Pinball, located in Banning, California, USA, is a non-profit museum that houses more than 1,100 pinball and arcade games in total. It opened in 2013, and two years later it was recognized by the Guinness World Records as 'the place where most people played pinball at the same time.'

Plans were underway to relocate the museum to Palm Springs, California

, due to the limited facilities in Banning, but the cost of relocation was soaring due to a global shortage of containers and the cost of renovation work at the relocation site was high. For some reason, the plan had failed. In addition, since the beginning of 2021, he has been suffering from financial difficulties, and he was considering selling a part of the collection.

Chuck Casey, chief engineer of the Museum of Pinball, told Ars Technica, 'We tried to relocate, acquire sponsors, sell collections, etc. The decision deadline has passed, so all amusement machines will be auctioned within the next few months. We will officially announce this in the near future, 'said the museum's closure. It was revealed that was decided.

In the comment section of Ars Technica, 'It seems that the number of guests was reasonable, but the admission fee was $ 150 (about 16,000 yen) a day for adults and $ 85 (about 9000 yen) for children. After that, it was all-you-can-play, but it's still expensive, 'said a comment pointing out that the admission fee, which was too high, might have been a drag on management.

On the other hand, the comment selected by Ars Technica as 'Recommended comment by the editorial department' is 'The admission fee of $ 150 was at the last special event held a while ago. The event was canceled and this year's event was also limited to 20% of the attendance. Normally, it would have been possible to play all day for about $ 50. Other collections here It was unparalleled and I used to spend three hours round trip to play, but it was well worth it. '

The site after the closure will be converted to a commercial cannabis cultivation facility.