Right now, video lottery terminals (
essentially,
electronic slot machines), are legal in New York State, but table games with human dealers, like poker and blackjack, are not.
Yes, carnivals were basically the arcades of the day, and mechanical games like pinball tables (which they still make), gun galleries, punching bags,
slots, fruit machines, casino type games also (Sega has some big casino resorts today), games like that were
essentially the ancestors of videogames, videogames are in their most basic description, just games but with
electronic technology.