Play Meter

IEWS BRIEFS Bu m11te Shaw Bally Manufacturing has agreed to buy 690,000 shares of common stock from its former chairman William T. O'Donnell at $25 per share. The " redemption" of the stock, which will completely separate O'Donnell from the company he started, has been urged by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission which controls licensing for Baily' s Atlantic City gambling palace, Park Place . (A complete story will appear in the next issue of Play Meter.) --·---·-- Democratic Rep. Robert Kastenmeier of Wisconsin , who heads the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties, and Administration of Justice, will head a February 3 session in Washington , D .C. , where representatives of the copyright royalty societies will meet with representatives of the coin-op industry to discuss current jukebox royalty legislation . Jukebox industry spokesmen contend the current $50 per year registration fee is exorbitant. Konami will market a Cyruss conversion kit, its second product to be marketed out of its American office in Torrance, California . Meanwhile, Game Kits, an Omaha company which has been selling Cyruss kits Konami claims are unlicensed , will probably go unprosecuted. Konami attorneys said it is cost prohibitive to act against the alleged pirates. A Game Kits Cyruss kit buyer in Lewston , New York , said he paid $325 C.O.D. for the kit and received only a badly reworked board and a scribbled note indicating the company was out of the decals and wiring harness to be included as advertised in the November 15 issue of Play Meter. An Omaha phone listing for Game Kits and its sister company T & R Vending has been disconnected, and company officials have not been available for comment. --·---·-- Game Plan officials report initial distributor orders for Sharpshooter ti have been much better than the company had anticipated . But when employees returned to production lines to build more of the games, prices on materials had inflated to the point that the company decided it would raise the distributor price on the pin from $1 ,335 to $1,425 . The price increase went into effect January 15. Atari has secured exclusive rights to produce and market home and personal computer cartridges of Konami 's new arcade hit Track & Field. The arcade game is marketed by Centuri . TAX ALERT According to an Internal Revenue Service regulation that has been in place since 1957, every operator must present a completed Form 1099 income report to each location which netted more than $600 from amusement and vending machines during the tax year. Those forms must 170 include the amount paid to the location and the location's tax identification number. The forms should be presented to the location by January 31. Operators can be fined $50 for each Form 1099 not filed or which contains incorrect information. The IRS takes this regulation seriously. This past summer an IRS compliance investigation in Oregon determined 140 operators failed to file correct income tax returns for 1982. According to the IRS, the investigation was part of a nationwide crackdown on unreported income. (See Play Meter, September 1, p . 12.) PLAY METER. February 15. 1984