Play Meter

for Russian goods. Consequently, there are some
jukeboxes and pinball machines in Russia, but
mostly in hotels and areas for tourism.
PLAY METER: Are there any civilized developed
countries like Russia where the business isn't
flourishing to any extent or is non-existant?
NAHUM: Countries like Turkey and Greece have,
for one political reason or another, banned pinball
machines. Pinball machines were in operation
several years ago in Greece, then due to a lot of
pressure from the newspapers and some groups
opposed to pinballs, these games were banned. We
feel one of the reasons these games were banned
was because there was not a proper image there.
There isn't a unity among the importers that would
encourage them to form an association and try to
pre ent a better image to the government and to
the public. It's a pity because there was a good
market for pinball machines in Greece, and it's lost
now.
PLA Y METER: It seems that the image problem is
as much if not more a problem in Europe as it is
here.
NAHUM: Very much so. All you need is a news
reporter who decides to write a series of articles on
pinball machines. And if he indicates that he has
seen kids hanging around the arcades and the
saloons, this starts an uproar. And unless you have
an association which is able to prove that what this
particular newspaperman was trying to do was
sensationalize, then the image deteriorates. We
have seen this happening in the most civilized
countries. We have seen pinball machines banned
at least three times in Italy. We have seen bingo
machines banned at least five times in Belgium. We
have had other countries where the pinball
machines were originally accepted because the
people felt nothing would come out of them, then
due to political problems, the pinball machine was
banned after a certain period of time. And this
created heavy losses for our customers. So buyers
overseas must try to maintain the proper image at
all times.
PLAY METER: What about the economic factors?
What kinds of problems does that present?
England, for instance. Has the devaluation of the
pound helped you in any way?
NAHUM: Not necessarily.
I don't think a
devaluation or revaluation makes too much of a
difference to a small exporter because automatical-
ly when there is a devaluation, the price of the
machine goes up to reflect the same value. On the
short-term basis, though, it can make a difference,
if the importer knows that his money will be
devalued within a month. He will tend to increase
his purchases prior to the devaluation just to offset
the fact that the goods might cost him more the
month after. But on the long term, there isn't too
much of a difference.
PLAY METER: What are buyers in the foreign
market looking for in coin-operated machines?
NAHUM: As far as a pinball machine or any type of
coin machine is concerned, the price factor is not
that important. If a machine costs fifty dollars
more or fifty dollars less, it's not important. What's
important is that the customer wants the right
PLA Y METER, September, 19n
machine at the right time, and he wants to be sure
it will be serviced properly. We have seen that the
most expensive video games sell much more than
the cheaper games, and that's because the machine
costing $3000 brings in much more money than a
machine costing $800. So my customer isn't
interested even if the machine is a hundred dollars
cheaper. What he wants is a machine that works, a
machine that's popular, and a machine that's
serviced properly. Of course, there are limitations.
We don't expect a machine to be sold at $5000. But,
again, the price factor is secondary.
PLAY METER: In this country, this business has
always done well, even in any kind of economic
crisis. Is this true in other countries?
NAHUM: Yes, I have traveled all over and have
found that coin machines have done much better in
lower class areas than in middle or upper income
areas.
PLAY METER: Is that also true during times of
economic stress?
NAHUM: Yes, the economic factor affects the
importation of the machine but not their
playability. The man who is bored certainly doesn't
like to sit hOqle and be bored. He goes to a pub, has
a drink, and gets on to the machines. I have found
that just the opposite happens when affluence sets
in. As soon as the money sets in, there is less play
on a coin machine. In Europe we have the
consensus that a lot of coin machine business was
lost to the marketing of television sets in the
homes. If the people had enough money to have a
TV in their homes, they didn't bother about going
out for a mug of beer and playing on a jukebox.
PLAY METER: What about money transactions?
How do you get your money from people who are
thousands of miles away?
NAHUM:
There are several ways of doing
If we are talking about a large
business.
transaction, and the man on the other end is
familiar with international trade, what we do is
offer him a certain group of machines. If he agrees
to buy them, we send him a provisional invoice, and
he goes to his bank and makes the necessary
arrangements to send us the money in advance or to
open a letter of credit to our banker. Then we ship
the goods and present our final invoice, and our
bank pays us. In other cases, where we have
developed a certain relationship with a customer,
where it's not something new, he usually tells us
what kinds of machines he wants us to ship
him-it's sort of a blanket order. They try to send
us a deposit on the order, and we deduct this
deposit from our shipments. And then we send our
documents to their bank for collection. With most
of the countries that we deal with, once the
customer orders, that means he has already
checked with his banks, and he will have no
problem securing the hard currency. But for our
own protection, we also make ourselves aware of
the financial situation in his country. We would
never ship goods to a country that has no dollars.
PLAY METER: Have you ever been burned?
NAHUM: The very few times we were burned
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