I have heard from one op that a bill acceptor increases revenue by 30% in the absence of a change machine.

A friend of mine who is an op has acceptors on all his machines.

I'm not an Op but I work with one closely to put on tournaments.

In all cases, my goal is to build up a "scene" at a location. One game at a location doesn't really draw people, from what I've seen. The minimum to do that is 3 games. You can run some really tidy tourney formats with only three games, but four is better.

You have to work to get the word out. That is the number one thing I see Ops not do. Find all the cheap/free venues of advertising and then what are the most cost-effective after that?

There is a site in my area called SF Funcheap. They posted one of my events and it doubled the turnout. Another time, the East Bay Express chose to feature one of my events and it tripled the turnout. Eventually, a scene builds up and I can get a reliable 20 - 30 players every time. However, it took about six months of work to get there. We had a few nights with only around a dozen players.

Have you emailed or called him?

Most of the time I've contacted an Op they were receptive. One was even willing to do a launch party with me.

Most Ops are not players. They operate all kinds of amusement equipment. They don't know what makes or breaks a game, and as pointed out in the thread, pinball generally does not earn, so if not told, they leave it to rot.

Well, we all have our sense of what is acceptable in a routed pin. For example, I and others played a TAF for months that was great fun to play but the thing-flip and magnets were dead. Still, the basic gameplay was intact. It was a fun "bar" pin regardless.

If the game is just broke, though, and the Op won't fix it, well then screw 'em.

Our local "minimal" OP in the Bay Area is California Amusement Games (CAG). They seem to thrive on mediocrity when it comes to pins.