A pril, 1936
AUTOMATIC AGE
16
By C a r r o l l E . V e t t e r i c k
HPHINGS look better this month.
Look at the records which some
of the new novelty games are hang
ing up. Look at the effect they are
having on uncertain territories. Look
at the increased number of machines
on locations. Look at the number of
additional manufacturers who are
turning out skill games with features
interesting enough to keep the public
playing.
Rose-colored orchids to these man
ufacturers who have responded to a
real need and who are being'rewarded
by finding a real market. Another
bunch of the same for the operators
who are determined to put their ter
ritories back on a quantity-table basis
and their business on a sounder basis
through the exercise of more pru
dence in operating games.
A little discretion and common
sense goes a lot farther in maintain
ing successful operating conditions
than the practice of depending upon
injunction proceedings to get opera
tors out of their troubles. In other
words, operators ought to know by
this time that it is easier to go along
with officials, parents and teachers,
respecting their rights and their
wishes, than to try to win back their
approval after it is lost. It is easier
to operate the clean way, and, in the
end, it is always a damsight more
profitable. Most operators know this
and practice it, but a mere handful of
greedy and indiscreet operators can
clutter up territories in a short time
so that nobody can operate games.
There is no way under the sun to
control “damfools”. You can pray
with them, plead with them, threaten
them, maybe even shoot a few of
them if you get a chance. And there
will still be “damfools” left to keep
things in a turmoil for others who
want to play the game fairly.
If the majority of operators would
get over the idea of fearing the law,
and prove to public officials that they
want to conduct their amusement ma
chine business on a clean basis, it
seems to me that these officials would
be glad to work with such operators
instead of against them. The real
enemies of the pin game operators
are the audacious and “hell-for-
money” operators who will try to run
any machine anywhere. All right, you
operators who are organized and
represent the large majority, why not
prove to the officials that the real
offenders are two or three of these
outlaws? Your association can’t take
the law into your own hands and
deal with these fellows, but you can
depend on the law to deal with them.
This might seem like an extreme
measure, but when you can’t reason
with “damfool” operators, then use
stronger medicine.
* * *
Q P E R A T O R S of automatic reward
tables can take a lot of lessons
from veteran operators of bells and
venders. These men are not only
blessed with an unerring sense of dis
cretion and good judgement, but also
possess that all-important quality of
diplomacy. Bell and vender operators
can go places and have gone places
with automatic tables. They have
been able to operate pay-tables in lots
of spots where the bell and vender
couldn’t quite make the grade. These
men have made the most of a brand
new operating opportunity. They rec
ognized the pay-table for what it was
from the beginning and have been
careful to keep it in its proper place.
I have always believed, with every
body else in our industry, that an au
tomatic reward table is not a gam
bling device. Police officials, how
ever, and the courts, seldom agree
with us that they are skill machines,
with a reward for those who are most
skillful. What I think and operators
think and manufacturers think doesn’t
mean a thing so long as reformers,
police and the courts say they are
gambling devices. When we can get
the courts to call them skill machines
© International Arcade Museum
and class them along with bowling,
billiards, trap shooting, horse racing,
baseball tournaments, etc., where
prizes are given to the winners, then
we can open up and place automatic
tables where the public can easily find
them. Until then, a little discretion
and diplomacy will make life more
peaceful and profitable for everybody
in the coin machine business. I say
everybody, because when newspapers
carry screaming headlines about “slot
machine evils” they cast reflections
and a certain stigma on every ma
chine which has a coin slot, from
vender to phonograph. The public,
the newspapers, the police and the
reformers still call them all “slot ma
chines” so it is up to everybody in
the trade to do everything they can
to help change these erroneous ideas
about a “slot machine racket”. The
sooner that manufacturers and oper
ators of vending, service and music
machines realize that new spaper
headlines are affecting their interests,
the better.
If the “courageous cusses” who
place automatic tables near schools
were gaining anything out of it them
selves we could simply charge it up
to the “greed for gold” which all of us
have in greater or lesser quantities,
but in most every case these opera
tors lose their collections and the ta
bles too within a few days. I ask you,
how in hades can their be any profit
in that?
And therefore, dear readers, if
manufacturers want to build and sell
automatic tables which look like old-
fashioned pin games, that is their
business. If you want to operate
them tactfully and place them only
where they will not bring down the
wrath of police and school officials,
that is your business. But, and a
couple of more buts for emphasis, if
“damfools” insist on placing them
where they will stir up trouble and
affect the operation of other kinds
of games, that, gentlemen, is every
body’s business— the operator who
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