Amusements - what's missing

[Vendo Mike]

Vendo is always looking for ways to innovate a current line or create a new one.  I am curious what is missing from the amusement side of vending.   

Is there room to improve a style of amusement equipment?  What equipment? What Improvement? Why?

Is there a particular type of game that is profitable but the equipment needs help or there's only a single manufacturer?

What are the most profitable games/platforms (outside of video games) in the field currently?  

What are the most reliable games/platforms/mfg outside of video games?  

What are the least reliable games/ platforms? 

What do you see is the next evolution in amusements?

Are amusements starting to lean further cashless or is that still down the road?

 

[orsd]

Ooh, another market that Vendo is gonna halfassedly enter and then give up on. And then drop equipment support for.

I kid, I kid.

Sounds like a great question to ask your Japanese overlords over at Sanden. Japan’s probably got some neat stuff you guys could bring over.

[AZVendor]

While we like you Mike, orsd is right, Vendo does have that reputation. Amusements is way to far out of your league.

[Vendo Mike]

 

On 6/2/2021 at 12:02 PM, orsd said:

Ooh, another market that Vendo is gonna halfassedly enter and then give up on. And then drop equipment support for.

I kid, I kid.

Sounds like a great question to ask your Japanese overlords over at Sanden. Japan’s probably got some neat stuff you guys could bring over.

That's totally fair.   Vending is a tough business with 80% of the volume coming from bottlers so manufacturers are at their mercy.  Not trying to play a sad song, just saying that, in order to survive when Big Blue isn't purchasing for a year or two... or five, a company has to be willing to color outside the lines from time to time.   Like any venture, they don't always work out and sometimes you have to cut bait.   Fortunately I haven't been roped into any of those odd machines yet. The amusement idea is out of my head.   

[VAVend]

The smart thing to do is leverage your company's vending machine background and develop self redemption vending machines for ticket redemption. Make one that actually is reliable and start there.

[RoadDogAmusements]

I could use an automated self-redemption machine. there's smart prize center, benchmark tickets to prizes, and the newer baytek prize hub. I would like something that is a little more affordable than the prize hub... but then the other machines are older and harder to find. There is definitely room here for more products.

[RikaKazak]

A smaller keymaster that is RELIABLE, doesn't misvend, and has a bigger "exit" door.  

In regards to misvends, I'm talking about those golpher chinese knock offs that give prizes out when they're not suppose to.  When I'm talking reliability I'm talking about how I've done 100K's in Keymaster plays with no service calls, and when I'm referring to a bigger exit door I'm talking about how iPads and Nintendo switches are the largest things I can fit in a keymaster.  I would LOVE to be able to have a PS5 or the new xbox and have it fit when it's won.  (fitting the larger prizes in the playing area isn't the issue, it's having it fall through the door when it's won that is the issue)

Also keymasters have 3 rows of 5.  Realistically 2-3 big prizes are all the kids go for.  So I run a beats by dre, nintendo switch, and an ipad.  The rest of the hooks are fillers and I remove a lot of them.  So having a smaller keymaster that I could put into restaurants easier would be ideal...WITH a bigger prize redemption door.

Make that and I'd buy a ton of them

[Vendo Mike]

I appreciate all the feedback, even ORSD's shot across the bow.    Keep them coming. 

I'm going to do some digging to get a better understanding of this info and present to my CEO. 

[Vendo Mike]

I was reading up on the KeyMaster unit.  Looks like it stirred up some issues (at least in Arizona).  Have you run across any problems with them being settable for payout or do you just have to have a disclaimer sign in your area stating that it's a "game of chance" instead of a "game of skill".   I'm sure that patent isn't going anywhere so I will likely focus on the ticket redemption side but am looking for as much info  

How large of a cassette is expected in order to hold a reasonable amount of tickets? 

Once tickets are redeemed and a value added to an account, is a paper slip with barcode/ QR expected or a plastic card with mag strip? 

Can those totals simply be forwarded to the customers VMS for the booth and stored on a customer account to be added to later?

[RikaKazak]

KeyMasters are 100% illegal in some states. 100% legal in other states. And in the grey area in other states. 
 

If you want a KeyMaster “type of machine” that’s legit and legal in every state I know of, it’s called a prize locker (it’s 100% skill based)

I operate in 2 states. One has them as explicitly illegal. The other has them explicitly legal. So it’s easy for me in regards to how to operate. 

I don’t do tickets. Sorry can’t help you there. 
 

Make a prize locker that’s so hard to win that it’s roughly one out of 1,500 plays a win AND with a larger prize door, and you’ll be legal in every state that I know of and make BANK!  I’d probably buy 20+ on day one of them myself assuming you got it explicitly LEGAL in Washington state (they have a list of machines banned and legal, example KeyMaster illegal, prize locker legal)

[RikaKazak]

Wanted to add. For a machine in wa state to be legal it has to be 100% skill based (so theoretically someone could win an infinite amount of times in a row) but the trick would be to also make it hard as golpher so I could put a $300 iPad in it, still be able to pay the location, make some money, and not have prizes won so often I have zero margin. 

[RikaKazak]

Call it the toad hopper where you have to put a toad on a tiny Lilly pad or whatever you want, the game and name don’t matter. ALL that matters is someone seeing a $300 iPad and trying to play to win it, the actual mechanics and game name and playing style don’t matter. 

[RikaKazak]

If you’re going to be at the nbva I’d love to grab a drink. I could tell you all about my dream machine  lololol.  

[RoadDogAmusements]

The Keymaster vs Prize Locker discussion above is accurate for CA. Although I have still seen some keymasters around... What's allowed and what's enforced are not always the same.

As for how many tickets a machine should hold I would say at minimum 2 stacks. So 4000 tickets? They should not print out anything imo. The industry is set up to have them either give standard tickets, or the ticket dispenser itself is replaced by a third party card reader functionality. If the game machine gives out the tickets then you would use another "ticket eater" machine to make a receipt with barcode or add the credits to an existing card.

Any prize merchandising game needs to have some kind of setting where you can control the frequency of payout. I run a bunch of stacker machines. If they didn't have that and it was all skill based... I wouldn't be putting things of any real value in them. There's no point in building a machine that just empties operator's wallets.

[Vendo Mike]

I appreciate the valuable info.   I will keep researching a putting some thought into the idea.

[Vendo Mike]

I have to say, due to what I've read about Keymaster, they scare me a bit.   The "game of chance/game of skill" issue seems to relegate that equipment to very specific regions which slashes the market considerably.  Also, we would need to come up with something along the same vein without getting into trouble with seemingly copying other's designs.  I haven't forgotten about this but still researching.