Here in the UK it seems that the pins that are sited in pubs and cinemas are maintained a lot better than the ones in the seaside arcades. The operators mostly do take care of all their games and keep them fully operational.
It seems that the maintenance staff in seaside arcades don't have a clue how to look after a pinball machine. Even brand new Stern machines are not cleaned and just left to get filthy dirty, and any faults that don't stop the game taking money aren't fixed.