String Pins Killed Real Bowling. The Alleys Did It To Save a Few Dollars

String Pins Killed Real Bowling. The Alleys Did It To Save a Few Dollars The United States Bowling Congress certified string pin machines for use in sanctioned league play while its own equipment research documented that those machines produce measurably more strikes than the free-fall pins that defined the sport for sixty-eight years. The governing body of American bowling approved a scoring environment it had measured as non-equivalent to the sport it regulates. Then it certified the scores anyway. The conventional account frames this as a modernization story. Trade press coverage in bowling industry publications and announcements from the Bowling Proprietors Association of America described the transition as a technology upgrade. Lower capital cost. Smaller venues.