Play Meter

m®o~ D~[[)rnrom\Y PlAt' ltlETER .. ' February, 1977 Vol. 3 No. 4 Bally Acquires World Jai-Alai, Stock to Split Two-£or-One Bally Mfg. Corp., Chicago, Ill. has acquired World Jai-Alai, Inc. of Miami, Fla. for stock valued at $66 million. World Jai-Alai owns four courts in Florida and one in Hartford, Conn. Each has parimutuel betting on the matches and Bally' s William T. O'Donnell indicated that the acquisition might force the company to modify or relinquish some of its present gambling licenses. "The Nevada people don't want you operating any pl~G,e.,.but there," O'Donnell told · the · Wall Street Journal "W~'ll have to sit down with them and see ifth'ere would be a violation." Bally would not be giving up licenses to manufacture or distribute slot machines in Nevada, according to O'Donnell, only those allowing actual participation in gambling operations. He estimated that "maybe 5 per cent" of Bally' s profit comes from slot machines owned and operated by the company. For the nine months period ended September 30, Bally showed earnings of $9 million up from $6.4 million a year ago. This provided dividends of$1.57 per share up from $1.15 a share. Revenue was up from $128.8 million to $159.2 million. For the second quarter, ended December 31, World Jai-Alai had earnings of $3.6 million or 28 cents a share. This compared with a loss of $323,000 a year earlier. Revenue rose to $6.6 million from $1.1 · million. Under the acquisition proposal, subject to definitive agreement and approval by the directors and stockholders of both companies as well as various regulatory agencies, Bally would acquire World Jai-Alai for 1,440,000 shares of its common stock. This would become 2,880,000 when Bally gives effect to a two-for-one stock split to be distributed Feb. 28. AMOA Shifts Offices The Amusement and Music Operators Association will move to larger office space in early spring. The new address is 35 East .Wacker Drive, Chicago. The AMOA has outgwwn its present space of 600 square feet. The new space measures 1635 square feet. It is being custom designed to AMOA's needs under the supe'rv1s1on of Executive Vice President Fred Granger. Granger says that the association is in its greatest period of expansion since its founding 29 years ago. "The larger and more efficiently organized space will enable the association to better . serve the growing membership and annual exposition," he says. Coin Acceptors Sues NRI On January 24, 1977 Coin Acceptors, through its research and development arm, H.R. Electronics, filed suit against National Rejectors Industries, Division of UMC Industries, Inc., charging infringement of five of its patents. According to Claud Trieman, Coin Acceptors president, "Coin Acceptors is and has been the pioneer and leader in the design and marketing of electronic equipment for the vending industry. In many ways, we have advanced the technolo9y of the entire industry, through the introduction of new features, and due to the reliability of our products; "Coin Acceptors has invented numerous electronic coin handling devices, many of which are protected by patents. Our company fully intends to defend its proprietary interests in these patents," Trieman added. Play Meter managed to contact a salesperson with National Rejectors, but he could not comment on the suit. We were unable to contact U MC attorneys by press time. Coin Acceptors, Inc. is headquartered in St. Louis. National Rejectors is in Little Rock, Ark. ;.