problems and a national association should not
dictate what state and local groups should do .
AMOA 's responses were made even more glacial by
being filtered through a cumbersome and expensive
law firm . During the video crisis AGMA and NCMI
had full-time legislative professionals who actively
worked with the field as time and funds permitted .
AMOA , however, has never had a full time legislative
staff.
By legislative and judicial precedent, govern-
mental jurisdiction over our industry's operations
has been assigned to state and local governments
through police powers and specific taxing
authority . Obviously , certain topics are federal by
nature, such as import / export laws , copyrights ,
patents , and federal tax laws. The overwhelming
majority of governmental problems , however, is at
the state and local level. Here operators , and to
some extent distributors , are the infantry that pro-
vides essential political strengths .
Without some form of national coordination
providing guidance, counsel , and experience in
other areas , local groups must start from ground
zero. They will needlessly dissipate their resources
reinventing the wheel. They may make seemingly
harmless , expedient compromises that can produce
disastrous results in other areas and in their own
future . Strong state and local associations with
active national coordination are essential for the
welfare of our industry .
AAMA does not have the operator base neces-
sary to provide national leadership for state and
local associations . NCMI , with an operator base, to
date has not had the funding necessary to provide
the ongoing leadership . AMOA, with the necessary
operator base and funds , has provided nominal
support for state and local associations . The current
AMOA president is paraded annually through state
association meetings giving AMOA commercials .
Special seminars at the AMOA convention ,
reference materials , publications , and sporadic
financial help for ad hoc projects (such as AMOA 's
support of Illinois's fight against video lotteries)
comprise the balance of AMOA's active support and
promotion of state and local associations .
AMOA has , in fact , looked to state associations
for financial support for expenses for some presi-
dential visits and pressure for advertisements in its
Location magazine.
Federal regulations and laws most often affect
manufacturers , and AAMA does maintain a Wash -
ington presence . With its recent move, AMOA
acquired a Washington staff to handle operators '
needs there . This service will be of limited use,
however, because the secret jukebox-royalty
agreement provided for raises in royalty fees for the
next few years and bars AMOA from undertaking
any counter legislative or court activity .
The current disarray among national associa-
tions is ominous considering our industry history .
Much of the adverse legislative pressure spawned
58
by video games has disappeared . Although we are
still lick i ng our economic wounds from that
experience , we should now be work ing together to
build our politi cal and public- relations resources
and to plan and implement long- range plans and
projects to strengthen the industry . What happened
to the industry is that our basic revenues increased
by nearly $5 billion annually . Because of the video
boom , we almost doubled the size of our industry .
What collapsed were overextensions based on our
expectations .
I believe a vertical national association com-
bining financial and human resources , experience ,
strengths , and political muscle of all sections of the
industry is needed and would be natural right now.
This idea is not new or original. NAMA (National
Automatic Merchandising Association) is a vertical
association for the merchandising industry . NAMA
has been vital to the strength and profitabil ity of that
industry , providing a consistent voice and unified
leadership to its members , who in return have
loyally supported it .
NCMI proposed the development of a vertical
association to AGMA. AGMA , now AAMA , turned it
down because of alleged legal (anti-trust) pro-
blems . Considering NAMA's 40-plus years of exis -
tence , without anti-trust problems , this doesn 't
seem to be a fatal obstacle.
NCMI also proposed a merger with AMOA. Two
years of top-level negotiations between the two
organizations , seeking to do what was best for the
industry , ended abruptly last fall when the AMOA
board determined that only the dissolution of NCMI
and the transfer of NCMI members to AMOA was in
the best interest of the industry.
In light of the changed circumstances for all of
the involved associations , now seems the ideal time
to lay aside animosity , pride , and competition and
combine to do what is best for the industry now and
in the future . No single segment can afford the
conceit or the ar rogance that it can do it all by itself .
An $11 billion industry needs and deserves an
association that provides a forum for street opera-
tors . arcade operators. national operators , cigarette
operators , manufacturers , distributors , and sup-
pliers to determine industry objectives and pro-
grams and work to implement and achieve them .
None of the national organizations currently is
doing that or plans to do that.
All segments of the industry working together
can accomplish far more than all of us working
separately can possibly do . If operators , distribu-
tors , manufacturers , and suppliers work for and
insist upon a more effective approach to our future ,
we will have it.
•
[Editor 's note: Herb Beitel was executive director of
the National Coin Machine Institute (NCMI ) for two
years before leaving to take an editorial position
with a vending-industry trade journal. ]
PLAY METER. November 1. 1985