Quoted from vid1900:$50 in a month is realistic in many locations.
50/50 split with locations that know the biz, new locations will sometimes accept 25/75 because they don't know any better. ...
A new machine is $6000 and would take 8000 plays (@ 75 cents) to break even. If your game gets 150 plays a month, it will only take 5 years to pay it off.
You forgot the split with the location owner. Giving 50% to them, you need 16,000 plays at $.75 each to pay it off and at 150 plays per month, it will take 10 years to break even, not considering broken parts and the cost of money.
Given this, you will need a GREAT location to make a new pin profitable. The restored, older pins may be more viable but you have higher parts cost and less reliability.
