Play Meter

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"No rest for the weary," it's often
said in coin machine operating.
Prices, taxes, politicians, and even
the press all combine to rob the
operator of precious sleep.
Roger Sharpe will deal with the
problem of image building in a
related article in Play Meter, but the
following incidents arose recently,
almost in Play Meter's back yard.
One of the dozens of operators in
the New Orleans area could come
home on August 11, pick up his
evening Times Picayune/States
Item ... a nd turn a little red around the
gills as he read the news article
"Pinball Game Controls Asked by
Councilman."
It happe ned in the suburban city
of Kenner, where Councilman Nick
Baroni felt that tighter controls on
operation of the machines were
needed, sa id the newspaper
account.
And tighter controls,even could
be lived with, right? Possibly, and
more about the proposed Kenner ,
Louisiana regs later. However, the
report by the Times Picayune's
Kenner stringer Susan Finch-who
did not, incidentally, quote any
operator's views in her 14-inch
article- contributed to tarnishing
the coin-op tmage m her third
sentence alone. It stated that the
Kenner City Council was con-
sidering regulation of "pinball and
other games of chance." [Emphasis
added.]
one time" (isn't two or four the usual
limit?); regulating the number of
machines according to the size of the
building in which they are located;
and putting a curfew on the games'
operation . (The city already has an
11 p.m. curfew for those persons
under 17, and it was created as a
result of congregating by teens at bar
and music hall locations at late
night.)
In Ken ner, arcades must have City
Council permission to open for trade
and must operate during certain
hours and with adult supervision.
Even wi th these restrictions,
including prohibition of children
under 13, Cou n cilman Baroni
contended that the council has been
reluctant to approve applications for
amusement centers "because of
opposition from the public,"
according to the Times-Picayune.
The debate continues.
Seek favorable news coverage
It bears stressing that the coin
machine operator can obtain
favorable news coverage of the
games. Attention getters include but
are not limited to high -score
marathons, T-shirts, and other
goods giveways, "bargain" pricing
th rough tokens, and the set-up of
tourname nts .
Once the publicity campaign is
decided on, it is up to the operator
not to hide its light under a bushel. In
other wo rds, publicize, publicize.
"--·To regulate pinball and other games
of chance ... "
- New Orleans newspaper report
Games of chance happen to be
illegal m Louisiana, with the
exception of bingo and horse
racing- but no coin-op games of
chance, by definition , under s tate
law.
The report goes on to c ite
parents' objections to teenagers
spending their money on the games
and merc hants' complaints that
"children loiter about the machines,
litter, use foul language, and get in
th e way of customers." And
Councilman Baroni, while saying
that he has no personal objection to
the electronic games, commented:
"If we'd ever put all these machines
in one place, we could probably fill up
the Superdome."
The councilman called for
controls on the games, including:
"limitation of the number of people
who can play the machines at any
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And in seeking favorable media
publicity, he will contact the editors
of the daily or weekly newspapers in
his area and the news directors of
TV/radio stations. Those persons, it
must be noted, are kept quite busy
wit h their positions (contrary to the
image projected by the comic strip
"Shoe" and its lazy editors). Those
edito rs see perhaps dozens of
notices of specia l upcoming events
each day, and maybe three out of
four such notices go straight to the
wastebasket as having little or no
general interest or "news value."
Videos and pingames are obviously
creating quite a bit of general interest
currently, and the media are dealing
with the games as news subject
matter (as discussed in Play Meter,
December 15, 1980, page 68, "The
Press Is Looking at Coin-Ops") . The
news editor or director is going to be
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PlAY METER, November 1,1981
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