Play Meter

UP FRONT
It's time again for this industry's annual checkup.
And , unfortunately, it's a bit more involved than a visit
to your family doctor or dropping your car off at your
local dealership.
The process of effectively evaluating the health
of this industry requires something other than the
hands of a skilled physician or a read-out from a
mechanic's diagnostic equipment . It would really be
nice if the industry could personify itself and come
walking into the Play Meter offices, pull up a chair,
and start telling us how it is doing. That not being the
case, we have long since resigned ourselves to the fact
that since the industry can't come to us, we must go to
the industry . And we do so this month with Play
Meter's Annual Operators' Poll.
As many of you may already know, our Annual
Operators' Poll is considerably more involved than
our equipment polls that are conducted twice a
month . I n fact, questions about the highest-earning
games of the year will again be omitted from our
annual poll.
Those juicy little questions will be dealt with next
month when we will be mailing out the ballots for the
Annual Play Meter Awards . The operators' poll ,
however, will contain just about every other question
we can think of that is important to the health and
well-being of the industry.
Now I realize that our Annual Operators' Poll is
rather extensive, covers a lot of ground , and takes
awhile to fill it out with your answers . But you must
also realize that a considerable amount of time and
effort goes into its preparation , and a great deal more
goes into tabulating and compiling the abundance of
information this important survey generates.
While you may only spend a half hour or so filling
it out , the Play Meter staff will literally spend
hundreds of man hours processing information and
preparing the survey results for publication and we ' re
glad to do it. In fact , we ' re hoping to spend a couple
of hundred more man hours processing this year's
poll because we know, and you should too, that the
more surveys we get back from our subscribers, the
more accurate and useful it will be .
So, no matter how big or how small your opera-
tion is, we want to hear from you. No matter how
successful or un successful your business has per-
formed this year , we need yo ur input. Big city and
small town operators alike are urged to participate in
Play Meter's Annual Operators' Poll. Only with a true
cross section of this industry can we produce a survey
with reliable and meaningful results . With your
cooperation and participation , we can make this
year 's operators ' poll the most informative survey this
industry has ever seen.
;;;;iit:~-_
Ralph C. Lall y II
Editor and Publi sher