Bally closes two distributorships
Having already closed two of its
17 distributorships, sig nificantly
reducing its operation in a third , and
promising more " consolidation
moves by the end of the first quar-
ter," Bally Manufacturing has finally
ended its post-video game boom
expansion and has, in fact, raised
serious questions about its future
commitments in the coin-op amuse-
ment industry .
Within weeks, Bally Distributing
has closed its El Paso, Te xas, and
Grand Rapids , Michigan, outlets,
and cut ba ck its Central Ohio office
drastically. Mike Rudowicz, Bally
Di stributing's marketing vice presi -
dent, called the company's flurry of
activity "consolidation moves."
He said the company had also set
up a centralized purchasing system.
"This will allow each office to order
independentl y," Rudowicz sa id ,
" but we ' ll be able to make sure our
offices don't accumulate an abun-
dance of equipment. "
The Bally executive said the cut-
backs were done " to get in tune
with market conditions." Said he,
" Consolidation is the right thing
now. We are planning to enter 1985
with a reali stic forecast of the
future. "
He then said the company
planned no more such moves "at
this time ."
However, Bally's president and
chief executive officer, commenting
on his company's $95 million loss for
the fourth quarter, said the coin-op
amusement industry " may not have
bottomed out of its decline" and
indicated the company would prob-
ably continue its consolidation
through the first quarter of 1985.
10
He said the company will close
certain plants and offices, cut its
payroll , write down excess and
obsolete equipment, and terminate
arcade leases.
Bally had been expanding in the
wake of the video game bust period .
The most rece nt Bally acquisition
was Banner Distributing of Philadel-
phia, Apri l 1984. Both the El Paso,
Texas, and Central Ohio offices
were 1983 acquisitions.
•
lotteries exploit
video game themes
State - run video lotteries are
wrongly exploiting the video game
business , angry operators said
during the recent AMOA Show in
Chicago .
For many operators, the AMOA
Show was their first chance to see
the 11/inois State Lottery machines,
which Bally is operating exclusively
for the state.
In the past, criticism had been
levelled against the video lottery
machines because Bally had an
unfair advantage in sewing up all the
video lottery locations without local
operators having the chance to
compete for the business. The
AMOA even issued a rare position
paper at the show stating that pre-
sently state-run video lotteries were
unfair to operators.
But, after seeing the games first-
hand , many operators became
incensed at something else-that
the video lottery machines were
using the video game facade to
capture their market niche.
" Ninety percent of the people
are looking down here for the new
games," said a Toronto operator,
Wayne Fromm, referring to the
games at the AMOA Show. " But
none of this will mean a thing if
these lotteries go in . I've read every-
thing that ' s been written on the sub-
ject , but I never realized what
exactly Bally was doing until I saw it
for myself.
" They have the gall to put a
video game up on the screen. The
game is incidental , a facade for its
lottery machines. Here, we 've been
fighting for public acceptance of
videos, and now Bally exploits it all
and turns video games into a facade
for its lottery machines! "
He said, " If these video lotteries
are accepted, we all might as well
kiss our businesses good-bye."
The lottery machine , obviously,
was not exhibited on the floor of the
show, but was in the lounge of the
Hyatt Regency Hotel. Numbers of
operators were constantly playing
the game, and many said they were
angry that Bally had used a video
game theme for its video lottery
machine .
However, an executive for Bally
told Play Meter that the company
had received very little comment on
the floor from operators upset
about Bally's method of attacking
this market.
•
PlAY METER. January 15. 1965