Fascinating thread, so many vectors for what is currently a niche market on the upswing. I've kicked around a number of pin-enabling business plans but have yet to see one that I think is sustainable, let alone profitable. Yet. Sorry I'm late to the discussion, hope you don't mind if I try to catch up.

For me personally, it was a lack of places to play them. I haven't walked past a pinball machine without playing it since long before I had quarters of my own. My old lady turned out to be a pinhead too, something I discovered a year or so into dating her while commiserating over our lack of local machines to play. We knew where every machine was where we lived at the time (Amish country PA) and what condition it was in. We played pinball a couple occasions a year and tended to go at it like a bindging crackhead when we did. Found out a few years later, she acquired her 'habit' in the game room of the general store in the tiny town where we met, where there always were one or two machines. Cyclone & TAF are the only two I recall, but they worked and were changed out every however often.

That problem goes back further than that... My parents had to sell our 3rd generation family business and moved from Nebraska to PA in '87 because of the recession and the S&L garbage (yes, bankers and investors have been screwing up the economy fraudulently for a long time). As a child, I watched every bank except one fail in our town - most farms in bankruptcy, etc. Save the Family Farm Act my ass.

I love your posts Vid and respect your ninja knowledge, but one man is rarely responsible for destroying an industry. I think there were more factors than one massive cocksucker.

Didn't Lenny Bruce say something along the lines of, "People say it as an insult but I wouldn't marry anyone who wasn't one."

Pretty sure that did happen. I was an arcade rat from the first time I set foot in the mall in my single-digit years. Arcades closed, never went to the mall again unless I was being paid to. And yes, I remember weed and other things changing hands. I was still devoted to religion back then so not only was I not involved but it must have been obvious to others if the Cornhusker kid noticed.

Win or lose? The case, not the lady.

I'm still waiting for the class action lawsuit where convicted DUI offenders sue for false prosecution on the grounds that the Commonwealth of PA engaged in a system of entrapment. Word of advice: if you ever get into that situation, fight it. They know how to do the paperwork but they suck in court, which is why they make it so hard to want to fight. Testify if you're good on the spot, because they will definitely be testilying against you.

Also, the young'n keeps asking when she can play your TWDLE again. I think it's because she loved all the attention she got by playing at the end of the tourney but then again, AC/DC is her fav pin evar so maybe a 7y/o can discern what's fun for herself as well as I can. whotfknows.

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What can I say, it's good "business". Speaking as someone who worked for Rubbermaid when Newell bought them and eviscerated them. Best sales quarter ever? Get rid of the free coffee machines, first step to reducing costs!

Believe me, if I could play pinball and look at titties while my warm beer is in the pingulp... my game would suck.

They do it here too. Even write down plate numbers so they can google their lucky targets and sort them by cup size. There have been local bars that were stuck with that reputation for nearly a decade. It's culture meets commerce... Here in Pennsyltucky, you've always got a friend in that the ossifer is still loaded from his night before and/or contradicts his own written statement, which he had plenty of time to read on his way to court while clocking overtime pay. But nobody fights, they all enter the cattle chutes. It's sad and un-American.

the teeming, unwashed masses 'get' very little these days. when Marx wrote "Die Religion ist das Opium des Volkes", he didn't have any way to predict said religion would be [fill in the blank*].

* - trying not to push random hot buttons this week, let's see how i do.

barcades will go away as soon as people stop playing the machines. bowling alleys make zero sense on paper but there's probably one near you... may have recently closed, but that's your target market IMO. leisure time, not on the couch but not too athletic either.

In PA the PBT can't even be mentioned in court. Blood is preferred, Staties sometimes have a properly calibrated breathalyzer - black box, little smaller than a microwave and half as tall. They don't use breath very much because it's far more contested in court, as it should be. I remind people all the time not to give evidence against themselves unless it's inevitable.

The one near us does - kids are welcome until 9pm (or later if they're cool, lol), separate dining room & deck but the kids swarm the pins. Unfortunately, the feral ones tend to treat them rather poorly. http://railroadstreet.com/

Yeah, and A-list games too! I often find myself leaving a credit or two for some young'n whose parents didn't give them any coins just so they can get a taste. Or showing some soccer mom where the Go button is. "yeah, the flashing one - just push it."

Elaborate? I'm not following you.