When faced with a wierd switch problem on wpc look to all switches in the row and Column. Look for backward diodes that has been a bitch to find in the past and results in very wierd game behavior. Last resort replace all diodes in the row and column. Or swap CPU boards with another game. It may lie in with a bad chip U20 (I think that's the one I'm not at home so I can't look it up). You also may want to swap the opto driver board that can cause opto issues as well. Good luck let us know how it works out.
Regards
Al