In
pinball, either of a pair of
hinged arms at the bottom of the
playfield controlled by
flipper buttons on the sides of the machine to
bat the
ball around. Some games have additional flippers in other locations.
The flipper was the invention that allowed pinball to become an accepted form of
entertainment rather than purely a gambling device, by turning it into a game of
skill. This separates it from other games like pachinko which are essentially games of chance, though it may be possible to nudge some of them and to
control the strength of the initial plunge or release of the ball.