mailbox
Your idea of a survey of the
industry [April, 1976[ is to be
commended.
Regarding question no. 19: I
feel that, with rising cost, the
distributor depending upon his
management ability has added
more than a reasonable amount
to the cost of the new games.
Yesterday I talked with five
suppliers of the same game in San
Francisco, Portland, Los Angel-
es, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City.
All prices cited me differed from
the base value, some as much as
525,000 plus freight. To a small
operator not knowing where to
buy this can be disastrous. Also
distributors have a tendency to
say every game is great and
overload an operator with too
much mediocre equipment just to
make an extra sale. Then they
don't stock parts to maintain the
equipment.
The other comment I would
like to make about the distribut~
ing companies is this: many of
them are both distributors and
operators in the field, and that
create s a definite conflict of
interest with regard to other
local operators. Some distribut-
ors have been known to sell
locations without the knowledge
of the operator only telling him
about it afterwards. Let operat-
ors run routes and let distribut-
ors provide distribution with all
the responsibilities that are en-
tailed.
Robert W. Hawkins
President
The Fun Factory
Sparks, Nevada
section in this issue devoted to
straight talk about some of the
better new games on the market.
If your distributor cannot level
with you, perhaps we can. --Ed.]
Up until your May, 1976
issue of PLAY METER, I have
been very impressed with your
magazine and think you have
rendered an excellent service.
On page 34 of the May issue
you have an article on the
'world's biggest, richest soccer
tournament' which describes a
525,000 Budweiser Tournament.
Now gentlemen, you know as
well as I that Tournament Soccer
in Seattle, Wash. is giving away
5375,000 this year alone. This
includes six 525,000 tournaments
and a 5125,000 tournament in
Minneapolis, Minn. Sept. 3-6,
1976.
You also featured a picture of
the Lei ure Sport System Bud-
weiser table. It would be very
interesting to see a tournament
played on tables with the handles
on the wrong sides. How did this
ever get past you and into your
magazine?
Robert B. Prescott
President
Valley Vending Service, lnc.
[The words 'world's biggest, rich-
est soccer tournament' appeared
in the article, as they do in your
letter, in quotation marks. The
words are those used by L eisure
Sports Systems to promote the
tournament. Th ey are not our
words.
We apologize for the
confusion nevertheless .
We do realize that the Bud-
weiser tournament, when held,
wiU not be the richest. If you
recaU, we published on the cover
of our Sept., 1975 issue a picture
of a team w ho won by themselves
$20,000. The photo was taken at
Tournament Soccer 's World
Champions hip held in Denver last
year. Th ere, over $125,000 in
prize money was awarded.
As for the wrongly set up
table: someone must have had
one too many "Buds" before
assembling it. --Ed. ]
~ [Thank you for your comments
i
...
~
8
andfor returning your completed
survey form to us so promptly.
You wiU be pleased to find a new
With each passing day the
necessity of a contract between
the operator and the customer
becomes more apparent. Please
print a general contract that can
be slightly altered to fit the
individual situation. I for one
don't know exactly what should
be covered and would appreciate
help .
Jimmy D. Cole
Cole Vending Co.
Weaverville, N.C.
[You wiU be pleased to know,
Jimmy, that a f eature article
about location contracts has al-
ready been assigned to one of our
writers and will be appearing in
next month's issue. Thanks for
the great suggestion. --Ed. ]
I have read and reread Louis
Boasbe rg's article in PLAY
METER of April, 1976. I have
been in this business 26 years and
it has always bugged me that the
industry still , after all its work, is
considered by some as a racket
bu iness . However , in the last
ten years, as the cigarette ad
says 'we have come a long way
bab y' in our public relation
battIe. I am myself preparing a
small article to be u sed at
association meetings because I
think it is time that we stand up
and take a bow for what we have
done in terms of public relations
in the last ten years. I don't think
we have won the battle but I
think we have come a hell of a
ways .
Anything that you can do to
help with this article on how we
can eventually win this battle I
would appreciate .
Bob Rondeau
E mpire Distributing Inc
Green Bay, Wis.
[As you know, the image of the
industry has been a constant
concern w ith us at PLAY
METER. ee this months article
on Robert E . Nims of Lucky Coin
Co. , Inc. and A.M.A. distribut-
ors, Inc. for one man's approach
to and success at public relations.
--Ed.]
We enjoy PLAY METER very
much. The last issue , carrying
information on arcades, was very
interesting. Our arcade is called
Little Pleasures.
hirly Garden
Automatic Coin Machine Co.
Norfolk, Neb.
(Continued on page 12)