Hi Guys I have been operating machines in Australia for 20 years. I have run pins as well as everything else out there. Pins are making a good dollar but you have to be not be scared to charge for play. $2 per game is where we are now. If someone wants to play a commercial grade pinball machine that is well presented then they must be willing to pay for it. 4 balls a game at $2 with no special and high replay value. Even the older pins that are in good working order command $2 per play. Granted we have $1 and $2 coins here but you need to fit note acceptors to any machine on site and shouldn't be a problem. Swap em over every 6 months. If you shop your games out well enough then you shouldn't get the service calls on em. If they do get really dirty and broken it means your making money. I find now that people in locations take notice of machines when they are Pimped out compared to just Stock. I don't find that they get damaged at all. We do more damage by moving them in and out of locations than the customer ever does.

Yeah I know what you mean. I have been to the US a few times and noticed that things are very cheap there. I like to compare the cost of Coke in different countries. A 600ml (12 oz ) coke bottle here is $4 ( cold from a shop ) compared to $1.50 over there ,so I do get it, but a lot of ops here were thinking that $2 a play was just too much and now we are all doing it. If we buy a new Buck hunter video game etc at $8000 then $2 per play has it be were it is or we never make our many back. We have been charging $2 a game on say Daytona since it came out in the mid 90's. I think if you have a good product then you should be able to charge a premium price. You will get half the amount of plays and make the same money but with less wear and tear. I hardly get any service calls so it does work. If you try it you can always drop the price back after a short time if need be. You could also set em to Very Easy so the player feels like they are very good at it and feels like they are getting value for money.