I think I read somewhere that it's common to have a 50/50 split on the coins taken in. Pin owner maintains and provides the machine. Location owner pays utilities and provides the location/traffic for the machine.

Confirm what I said though. I'm not 100% sure since it is not my background, just thought I read thaty somewhere.

I'd mention some basics. Of course I don't know anything so take it with a grain of salt.

Usually an operator puts games in on a split, like 50-50. But with the rising cost of equipment it can be higher like 60-40 or 75-25 for the operator, or the operator may want a guarantee. X amount each week or the location makes up the difference.

An astute op will check the city where he wants to operate in, every city hall has a license division. And find out what he may all need. Might be a license on him, his company, each machine, and location. And find out if there are penalties for unlicensed games, some cities have heavy fines or confiscate equipment. And find out the zoning ordinances. You can't just put games everywhere, there could be some strange things you run into. Not every town wants games or arcades.

And he'd get his own insurance. someone gets hurt by a machine you own, and your name will be first on the hit list.

And if there is already an operator there, the location might already have a contract with that op and nobody else's equipment can be placed in there.

Do your homework, learn as much as you can. So you have the best chance at success.

Just in case you are a bit more than simply curious.

LTG

Guaranty where the location makes up the difference is very challenging. usually you make a guaranty where you get all of the earnings that are below X number. Putting your hand out to a location owner for payment will normally result in your equipment not being there very long. Some locations will give you 100% of the earnings just to have a pinball machine... but not alot of them. 70/30 on a pin is about normal. 60/40 on Video games, 50/50 on jukeboxes and pool

Hit me up if you got any questions or want a copy of the contract that I use.

That is why many ops went to contracts with locations.

LTG

Indeed a split but usually more complicated (at least here in Belgium) than jst 50/50 split.
Here you have to pay a license fee each year (about $500 to operate a pin) so most operators calculate that fee into the split.
Ie 50/50 but the first $xx a pin makes is for the op and not split to offset this fee.
Another op I know was smart especially when dealing with locations that weren't smart, so he went in and said I place my pin here and you only pay 30% of the fee. What he implicated was that they would only get 30% of profits too, but the way he told it it looked like they got the better end of the bargain.
And most also have contracts limiting other operators so one owner can place all machines (bingo, darts, pool, ..) as these make more money.

I agree with Gex here. In my state I needed a vending license. Really need to get a feel for the location from a 7 day standpoint before attempting to put in any equipment. Choose theme and condition according to the type of patron that attends the establishment. It is not the easiest thing to make money at unless you have great locations. Rather easy to make a couple hundred extra bucks on the side each month but very difficult to try and make a living doing this. IMHO

I just started and I have pins in one location, so I'm not big time by any means. And I'll probably only ever have pins in this one place. But what everyone has said so far is exactly what I've gone through.

I have a 50/50 split with the owner. My city calls the game owner a distributor and the location owner an operator. Both need licenses, and the operator (restaurant in my case) has to pay a fee to the city of $20/machine/year. My distributor license costs $200/year. I also had to get a home business license as even though the machines are in a restaurant, my "business" is in my home. The cost for the home business license was taken care of by my $200 distributor license, so no additional money was paid for it. My county and city have restrictions on a home business, so you have to make sure you know what you can and can't do.

You need insurance, especially general business liability. I already had this as I repair pins in people's homes. I checked with my agent and my policy would also cover games in a location, so no additional coverage was needed. Getting the pins insured for loss or damage is tricky as most insurance companies are very hesitant to insure your property on someone else's property. So I made sure the restaurant has coverage for loss to other people's property. If anyone can give me any additional information on insuring your games against loss or damage on someone else's property, I'd appreciate it.

My location is a family restaurant with tons of kids. So I'm sticking with themes that will be popular and exciting with kids and okay with parents. No GnR, Elvira, South Park, etc. I really don't expect this to make me any or much money. If I can break even, I'll be happy. I'm doing it for the fun of it and to introduce pinball to more people. As you know, there aren't many places to play pinball in the wild any more. I'm happy I'm able to add another location to the map.

Finally, here's my thread about me setting everything up on Wednesday:
http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/new-location-for-pinball-in-western-kc