NEWS
BULLETIN
Successful Amusement Expo International
“We’ve already had a great day of education,” said Jerry
Johnston, president of the Amusement and Music Operators
Association (AMOA) at the ribbon cutting ceremony of the
Amusement Expo International, held March 15-17 in Las
Vegas.
“Judging by the huge increase in attendance,” he added,
“we hit a home run.”
Chris Felix, President of the American Amusement
Machine Association said, “We increased in the number of
exhibits and attendees; we are on the right path.”
The Expo is co-sponsored by AMOA and AAMA. It is co-
located with the National Bulk Vendors Association (NBVA)
and the Laser Tag Convention.
There were 10 seminars for the Amusement Expo covering
topics for both street operations and family entertainment cen-
ters. There were seven seminars for the NBVA and 15 semi-
nars for the Laser Tag Convention. All were very well-attended
and enjoyed by everyone.
AAMA presented its annual awards in the following cate-
gories: Supplier of the Year (American Changer); Distributor
of the Year (Betson); and Manufacturer
of the Year (Bay Tek Games).
The Lifetime Achievement Award
was presented to John Schultz, Execu-
tive Vice President of AAMA, who will
retire at the end of May.
Play Meter presented its Operator of
the Year Award to Emily Dunn of
Tom’s Amusement Company in Blue
Ridge, Georgia.
PLAY METER
“This is quite the honor,” said Emily Dunn. “I’d like to
call out two managers, Chad McClure and Brian Deyton;
they are so dedicated. I accept on behalf of my company
and employees.”
Play Meter also presented its annual Operators’ Choice
Award, which was voted on by operators: Best Video Game
(Raw Thrills/Play Mechanix for Jurassic Park); Best Pinball
(Stern Pinball for The Walking Dead); Best Jukebox (Touch-
Tunes for Virtuo); Best Photo Booth (Face Place/Apple
Industries); Best Redemption Game (Bay Tek Games for Big
Bass Wheel); Best Table Game (Valley-Dynamo for Valley
Pool Table); Best Boxer (IGPM/Kalkomat); Best Bulk Vend-
ing (Beaver Machine Corp).
After the show opened, AAMA held a meeting on the
show floor about the progress within the FEC Committee,
which was formed a year ago.
Co-Chairs are George Smith of Family Entertainment
Group and Joe Camarota of Alpha-Omega.
There are five subcommittees that are focusing on food
and beverage, payment systems and technologies, merchan-
dise, marketing, and games, rides, and
attractions.
There will be monthly FEC newslet-
ters focused on education and promo-
tion of benefits to FECs provided by
the association, as well as educational
items on the website.
Look for full coverage of all the
exhibits and activities in the May issue.
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APRIL 2016