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From the Editor Awalk through 1995 I Valerie Cognevich Editor PLAY METER t's always interesting working on the annual Year in Review issue. We did it a bit differently this time and I think you'll like it. We've taken each month and highlighted what we covered in that issue. It's a quick and easy way to see the events that shaped 1995. Were there surprises? There are always surprises in this industry! However, there were admittedly some events that were noteworthy for a variety of reasons. For instance, I guess we were a little shocked by the exposure the video poker industry suffered here in Louisiana. You may know that Louisiana is one of a mere handful of areas where the games are legal. And boy did we have trouble. Even though we live in the state, we were getting newspaper clippings from all over the country about Louisiana and its unique brand of politics! When Louisiana legalized video poker one of our respected industry friends commented that if anyone could screw it up, it would definitely be Louisiana. And we seem to be doing just that. But that's another much longer story. We can talk about gambling in many forms, be it casinos, Indian gambling, or video poker, but one thing seems fairly certain: no other state is likely to have legislation passed any time soon to legalize video poker games. But it doesn't mean efforts will cease. Gambling continues to swell on Indian reservations. This year the Coeur d'Alene Indian tribe announced plans to start a national lottery, promising the biggest jackpots the nation has ever seen. And South Dakota, once the model for video lottery, has suffered several nearly fatal blows over the years. The latest saw the state's share of revenues increase to a whopping 50 percent, while rules loosened making it much easier for locations to operate their own machines. Gambling aside, no subj ect warranted 8 more space than redemption. Our new product introductions tell the tale: of roughly 160 new product announcements, 65 were redemption items; another two dozen were kiddie rides. The rest were a combination of jukeboxes, video, pinball, and other assorted items like pool, darts, foosball, and air hockey. Of course, we know that redemption is the product of choice in the staggering number of family entertainment centers opening up. Just a few we highlighted included Block Buster's Block Party, the CyberMind Virtual Reality Center, T-Mek Mekropolis, and Perimagico in Mexico City. They keep getting more lavish and big! The Fun Expo, geared toward the FEC market, was bigger than ever. Each year (this was the fifth) more traditional coin machine operators and distributors show up, walking the aisles to make sure they keep in touch with what's going on. There's no doubt that next year we'll see even more of them as the word spreads. Fun Expo organizers are planning a questionnaire for operators' input. They want to offer something for them, too. No year, from now on, will be void of talk of high and higher technology. We're on the Information Superhighway, or as John Lawrence of JAM says, the Information Autobahn! It seems that everyone is joining an on-line service and at least two industryites, Jim Trucano and our own Randy Fromm, have gone on-line with their own magazines. Jim's Vending and Entertainment Network and Randy's Amusement International Magazine are up and running. We've only scratched the surface of what we'll see in the future. And video games are more vivid and realistic, far beyond our wildest dreams of only a few short years ago. We'll remember 1995 as the year we mourned the dashed hopes of ever seeing a dollar coin, and efforts began in ernest to ban cigarette vending machines. Violence was a Juke-warm topic and NANI began its critical test phase. Looking back at 1995 we can point out some bad, but we can't forget the good. We're optimistic about the future- a future that is not far away. .A. DECEMBER 1995