Fuller. Ed and Mark Blankenbeckler
of Seeburg, Tim Jackson of Romstar,
Bill Rickett of Dynamo, Byron Cook of
Tradewest. Mike and Kim Yatta of
Status Games, Ron Yaffe of Showcase
International. and Emil Marcet of
Valley.
The Texas Rising Star award was
presented at the convention banquet
to Roy Head, a country-and-western
singer who has had 32 songs on Bill-
board's Top 100 record charts. His
song "Treat Her Right" sold a million
copies. Head and his wife were there
to accept the award.
On Sunday following the show, the
association sponsored a pool tourna-
ment. which was conducted for the
fifth year in a row by Willie Elder.
Elder's wife kept track of the progres-
sion of players. "We are very grateful
to Willie and his wife,"said AMOT
executive director Pat Miller. and
operator Bob Minnick added, "We
would like to thank Willie for all he has
done for our tournament. Willie has
contributed greatly to coin-op pool
tournaments."
•
VNEA championships held
More than $25,000 in prize money
was awarded to winners of the sixth
annual Valley National 8-Ball League
Association International Champion-
ships at the Bally Grand Hotel in Las
Vegas June 1-8.
In the men's divison, Red Sails No. 2,
representing Stansfield Vending, Inc ..
of Lacrosse, Wis.. won the team
competition and a $5,000 prize. Scott
Kitto, representing Quad Cities Amuse-
ments, Inc.. of Davenport. Iowa. won
the singles championship and $ 1.000.
For the second year in a row. the
winning team in the women's division
was Cannon Lane of D&R Star of
Rochester, Minn. Chris Glass, also
representing D&R Star, won the
women's singles title. Cannon Lane
received $2.250 for its team victory,
Glass $600 tor her singles cham-
pionship.
The winners, who received plaques
in addition to the cash prizes, emerged
from the 23. 754 players in 29 states and
three Canadian provinces who partic-
ipated in Valley National 8-Ball
Leagues in 1 986.
The Las Vegas competition. played
on 90 Valley Cougar ZD4 tables.
included 16 women and 32 men
playing for the singles titles and 160
men and 80 women vying for team
championships.
•
Seeburg opens
CD one-stop
In conjunction with the introduction
of its LaserMusic compact-disc juke-
box. Seeburg Phonograph Corp. has
begun operating a one-stop exclu-
sively for compact discs.
Ed Blankenbeckler, Seeburg presi-
dent. said the national one-stop selling
directly to operators "is a way to
protect the razor by making sure the
blades are always available."
William Guler, formerly a top-level
executive of H.R. Handleman (called
by Blankenbeckler the "world's lar-
gest rack-jobber"), joined Seeburg
July 28 as general manager of the one-
stop, named Seeburg Compact Disc
Distributing Corporation.
The company already has begun
taking orders and shipping discs.
Guler said, and is expected to be
operating full-scale by the end of
August. "We're trying to get set up as
soon as possible." he said, "because
the machines are rolling out."
Seeburg announced the formation
of its one-stop while exhibiting at the
recent Amusement and Music Opera-
tors of Texas (AMOT) convention.
Another one-stop exhibiting at the
show, Mobile Record Service of Pitts-
burgh, has been an ardent supporter
of Seeburg's compact-disc phono-
graph and told operators attending
the show that more than 8,000
compact-discs titles are available. •
O'Reilly conviction upheld
The July 24, 1985, conviction of
Timothy O 'Reilly on charges of dealing
in counterfeit coin-op games has been
upheld by the 11th Circuit Court of
Appeals in Atlanta.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lark Tanksley,
who prosecuted the O'Reilly case, said
that the appeals court decided the
government had provided sufficient
evidence that O'Reilly had violated
federal copyright laws.
O 'Reilly, a 23-year-old Canadian,
was sentenced September 11 to five
years' imprisonment and ordered to
pay restitution to Data East USA He
was released on probation after serv-
ing little more than two months of the
sentence.
•
AMOA expects no
Berne action in '86
Winners of the mens division at the sixth annual Valley National 8-Ball League Association
In temational Championships at the Bally Grand Hotel in Las Vegas display their plaques.
10
The Amusement and Music Opera-
tors Association (AMOA), having fol-
lowed congressional discussions of the
Berne Convention, expects no Senate
action in 1986 regarding the U.S. join-
ing convention.
The Berne Convention is an inter-
national agreement tor the protection
of literary and artistic works dating
back to 1886. Approximately 75 coun-
tries are signatories of the convention,
but the U.S. is not one of them.
According to Mark Griffiths. AMOA
director of government affairs, "It is
unlikely that the Senate will come to
any agreement this year, because
joining the Berne Convention could
require changes in U.S. copyright law.
PLAY METER, August 15, 1986