Town East Mall’s Aladdin’s Castle wasn’t just another arcade—it found itself at the center of a landmark fight over teens’ rights. In the late 1970s, Mesquite passed Ordinance 1353, which barred anyone under 17 from operating coin-op amusement machines unless accompanied by a parent or guardian. Aladdin’s Castle sued, challenging the age restriction as arbitrary and legally irrational and the police-investigation requirement as unduly vague.
The Fifth Circuit agreed in 1980, striking down both provisions under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the U.S. and Texas Constitutions. Mesquite appealed, and in 1982 the U.S. Supreme Court reversed only the vagueness ruling—finding the investigatory language permissible—but remanded the age-restriction question for clarification of its reliance on state law.
Though the legal dust settled decades ago, Aladdin’s Castle at Town East remains famous not just for its row of Pac-Man and Galaga machines but for standing up to municipal overreach—helping define the limits of juvenile-curfew and zoning laws nationwide. Even today, arcade historians cite the case as a touchstone in First and Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence regarding minors’ access to public amusements.