The State of Coin-Op in 2024: A “Breathing Industry” That’s Still a Good Business to Be In

The closing year in America has been marked by high inflation and sluggish job growth. Whether or not these conditions inversely affected game room collections is debatable, but there’s little doubt that a bunch of amusement arcades…whether in an FEC, mall, bowling center or free standing…saw a decline in revenues.

Coin-Op Closing Year in America: High Inflation, Sluggish Job Growth Impact Collections, But Economic Indicators Show Improvement

The closing year in America has been marked by high inflation and sluggish job growth. Whether or not these conditions inversely affected game room collections is debatable, but there’s little doubt that a bunch of amusement arcades…whether in an FEC, mall, bowling center or free standing…saw a decline in revenues.

The odd thing is that economic indicators improved during the fall, but coin-op still needs some time to play catch-up. Machine prices continued to be a concern. Operators may want to buy one, two or a dozen of the often-excellent new pieces launched in 2024, but when measured against collections, more than one has kept a tight grip on the purse strings.

Still in all, coin-op in general remains a good business to be in. As Hall of Famer (HOF) Rick Kirby might say: “We may not all be eating lobster, but we’re still enjoying a steak.”

Trade guru Howard McAuliffe, who like his pop George is always and forever a huge believer in this industry’s future, said the first half of the year was great, then things softened up thereafter. It’s important to remember that aftereffects of the Covid-19 pandemic were still being felt, though at this point, it’s sort of been swept into the dustbin of history.

The last word on this subject might belong to Utah arcade owner Adam Pratt, who said: “Ours used to be an industry that someone could break into without much money and find success. That’s becoming less likely these days.”

What’s important for readers of this magazine to remember, however, is that (with rare exception) they’re already in this industry and in most cases, have gone through the hard knocks and suffered through those hard-won experiences that can be as important to success as a mountain of investment capital.

Coin-Op is a “breathing industry.” People, companies and machines come and go as do the players. This year, we saw the continuous growth in cashless vending with QR codes and tap-to-play readers. New factories showed up like Zooom Studios. New leadership moved into position: Bob Burnham at AMOA and Beth Standlee at AAMA. TouchTunes bought Arachnid and, like Dave & Buster’s, made an arrangement with Lucra to bring cash rewards to better players in competition on games like BullShooter darts. Keep your eyes on this during 2025!

As always, we lost some friends like Don Hesch, Bill Westerhaus, Stan Jarocki, Don MacBrayne and Bob Boals. And lastly, we found a way to honor some of the greats via induction into the HOF like operators Millie McCarthy and Dick Hawkins, and game designers like Al Alcorn and Eddie Pellegrini.

Finally, may I send out Happy 2025 wishes to the RePlay subscribers who keep our engine chugging along year after year. You’re the greatest!