Play Meter

lot more competitive. There are a lot of operators
in Great Britain who would cut their mothers throat
to get a location . uffice it to say that operating is a
highly com petitive indu try here .
PLA Y METER: Are all the oper ating concerns
pretty imilar to one another in Great Britain, In
t hat t hey all operate amusement machines, juke-
boxe and gaming dev ice ? Or do some tend to
specialize in certain areas?
GROOM: I t hink there i a tendency of orne of the
larger firms like our elves to specialize in music and
amu ernent ·with -prize machines (AWP). This is
the difference with our market in t he United
Kingdom and t he American market.
We are
primarily concerned a large operators with the
license t rade or the pub business . I think that in the
UK you must divide your market into two distinct
market : t he club trade and the lice n e trade. And
unlike any other country, we have brewers here
that control up to 11,000 sites.
PLA Y METER: How do they control these sites?
Do t hey own the e site?
GROOM:They eit her own them outright as a
managed hou e, in which case they put a manager
in to run their own house, or t hey have a tenant
who run the house for them on a year-to-year
basis.
PLA Y METER: But still they are responsible to
them for all their action , right? And all their
profit and 10 e?
GROOM: Indeed they are. They are controlled by
the brewer.
PLAY METER: How does this massive control by
the breweries affect your relationship with them as
a coin machine operator? Does it put you under
t heir thumb to an extent t hat they exert a lot of
influence and pre sure on you?
GROOM: The brewer today is looking for cash flow .
He now recognizes that our industry is a lot more
respectable t han it was . He recognizes a lot of cash
flow comes from it and probably knows a lot more
about coin operation than a great number of
oper ator .
PLA Y METER: That kind of leads me to think they
might be inclined to own their own equipment
rather t han deal with people like yourself or a
company like you own .
GROOM: To an extent, I think a number of the
larger national brewers are thinking along this line.
In fact, t hey are now beginning to employ people
from t he operating industry to advise them as to
the best means of extracting the highest possible
r venue from coin operation.
PLA Y METER: Are you aying then that it is not
likely they will end up operating their own
equipme nt, but be more critical of the way you
operate equipment in their location?
GROOM: I t hink t hat is very largely true, although
one of t he largest national brewers in this country
has already got an operating company of its own, a
small one. That is the best organization. Others are
following and are employing people from the
operating industry to advise them, as I said. One
particular brewing concern, which controls in
exces of orne 7,000 licen ed premises, has now
employed ex perts or people who advise t hem on
how operations hould be run .
Pl.At'.-r£R
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.
"Most of the national brewers have a pretty good idea
today of th e amount of r evenue th ey should be getting
from coin-o perat ed equipmen t , whet her it be a juke box
or a fruit machine. "
"Th e rules and r egulations are very stringent. For
instanc. very m ember of my own staff has to be
ch cked by security, has to be licensed by the gaming
board, has to carry an identity card w hich tells the
brewer or his licensee that he is part of the organization. "
J
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