Play Meter

Editorial
seomy sister goes stroight
Thanks to men and companies like those featured in
this month's articles, people and politicians all over the
country are coming to think of "arcades" in a different
way than previously.
Because of the decor in them and decorum with
which they're being run, the new arcades, or family fun
centers as they prefer to be know, are disproving and
di placing the 40-year-old stereotyped view that pinball
and assorted coin-operated amusement games belong
to the same moral category as peep shows, switch-
blades and corruptors of youth.
To this we can only say a hearty, "Thank goodness."
The men and businesses running these new
amusement centers also have another factor in their
favor, aside from treating their businesses as true
businesses rather than dumps for local social rejects.
For the most part, the new amusement centers are
run b y young people who grew up in the '60's and who
omehow never developed the prejudice against
amusement machines that their parents may have held.
This openness to the amusement machine as an
acceptable means of an entertainment for middle and
upper middle class people is also evident in the persons
who patronize the new amusement centers.
And it is primarily because of this social acceptance
of the coin-operated game that the new amusement
centers have become such a major economic factor in
the industry.
National arcade chains have tripled and quadrupled
in size and income in just a few years. The local
operator is discovering anew that people are willing to
play his machines if they are placed in attractive,
well-kept environments and his discovery is giving
added impetus to manufacturers to produce equipment
aimed at the new and growing market. More and more
people are becoming interested in becoming operators
and even di stributors, realizing the economic potential
in an industry long maligned, but now coming into its
own right.
But the obvious fact to remember in this surge of
popularity for arcades is that none of it could have come
about if not for certain social and economic factors and,
mo t importantly, the aggressive courage of young
entrepreneurs to try something different.