Quoted from pezpunk:i think that premise is deeply flawed. it assumes there is an "on location" customer base to be had. does ANYONE here carry quarters around with them? of course not. even if we did -- we have an arcade in our pocket in the form of a smart phone. we have an arcade at home in the form of various consoles. we have our PCs / iMacs / laptops for browser games. it's not a problem with pinball. random, unsolicited location gaming is dead and over. a few dregs may be left maybe, but it's not ever coming back in that format. leagues and home use are the future of pinball if it's to survive, and i think both need to be aggressively courted and farmed and nurtured by the pinball manufacturers if they're smart.
As you pointed out - the quarters aren't the problem. That smart phone you note could also be a form of payment via a wireless transaction to any vending machine.
What kills pinball on location is what killed it 20 years ago when it was passed over for video games. It takes too much time and therefore too much money to perform upkeep on the games. If you had an arcade full of them, then maybe.........maybe it would pay to have a guy fixing them. Having one or two games at various locations - why would any Op bother when he can put in one of any other options that make way more money and require way less upkeep. Stacker or the latest Stern? Cost to operate vs profit.........Operator will go with Stacker every time.