I don't know if there is a fear that "good" players will come along and keep winning free plays or will make one game last a long time so they must charge big money.

For me I will put in more money overall if I can play more games. When arcades were still around me I would put several dollars into the $.25 per play machine but might only play the $.50 machine for one game. If a place only had expensive pins ($.50 per play in those days) I would only play a game or two. It was not the amount of money that I spent overall that mattered to me, it was the perceived value per play that I looked at.

The few pins that are around me in pizza shops, it is just painful to watch. You can see the college students look at them, $1 per play or buy a big slice of pizza. Which do you think wins out? These games are just sitting idle, no one playing. I would think any money going into them would be better compared to them just sitting in attract mode burning out light bulbs and attracting dust.

I would like to hear an operators take on it, on first glance I would think the pins would earn much more at $.25 or $.50 per play, just because more people would randomly throw in a quarter they have in their pocket. Does the added wear and tear of 4 poorly played (very short) games by amateurs really put that much more wear on the machine compared to 1 well played game by someone is competent and willing to put in a dollar? The vast majority of players I see are so novice theirs games are so short the perceived value to them is awful, compared to playing a game of pool or megatouch.

It seems like the current route model is bad if you are an operator. Splitting the meager take with the property owner seems like a losing game from what many operators are describing.

I would be very curious about a straight rental of the pins with a service agreement, let the property owner keep 100% of the money earned and price the pins very cheap like $.25 a play.

The goal would be a loss leader or a break even to keep patrons around and buying the stuff that actually makes money for the property owner, like booze. The bands, the pool tables, the megatouch games, the huge TV's on the wall, they are around to keep the patrons entertained so they buy the high profit margin stuff. I would think pins could be like that if they were cheap to play so even very marginal players would play, stay entertained, and hang around for "one more drink" or the kids would stay entertained for a little longer so the parents could stay at the restaurant a little longer.