Operator earnings back in the day??

Vabeachrunner3

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Hey all, I was curious if there were any operators out there that could share some insight into what earnings were like back in the day during the early 80's? I spoke to an operator here locally whose family has been in the business since the mid-60's and he said at the absolute height of it all that a single Pac on location could pull close to if not over $1500 a week. If my math is right, an average game of 3 minutes, with the machine on 10 hours a day for 7 days a week would put you right at that figure. I've heard stories of the huge profits that were being made BITD and I'm sure like everything there were factors that played into those numbers. So if anyone lived through and cashed in on the arcade craze I'd love to hear your story!
 
I think you meant "Would anyone like to admit to money laundering and tax evasion?"
 
Bob the operator told me about NBA jam had to visted twice a week cause the dollar feeder would fill up.. They would tie bundles biils and toss them in the back of the cab..
The operator and owner would count the take on Sunday. Bob said the machine generated from the high 2k to the low 3k per week.
 
Old Playmeter and Replay's would post earning stats if you can find a copy.
 
I talked to an op several years ago that told me when Defender came out, it was making $800 a week for him.

I've also heard people say that when the original video poker games came out around 1980 or 1981, they would make over $1000 profit in 1 week, operator split, and pay for themselves the very first week.

I used to work for an op and the best earning game I had on my portion of the route was Golden Tee. In a good bar, the Golden Tee would make over $300 a week. I had one place I only went to every three weeks, and often the bill acceptor would fill up, and they'd start spending quarters to play it.... so you'd end up with the acceptor full and a couple hundred dollars in the bucket too. We didn't get a lot of the newer stuff but I had a location where Fast & Furious Super Bikes were earning nearly $300 a week too.
 
I think you meant "Would anyone like to admit to money laundering and tax evasion?"


Wasn't even thinking down this route?! So I'm guessing reporting was done on an "honor system"? I mean I can't imagine localities having access to coin counters, books, etc? Although if the case, it'd seem super easy to report whatever you wanted
 
Bob the operator told me about NBA jam had to visted twice a week cause the dollar feeder would fill up.. They would tie bundles biils and toss them in the back of the cab..
The operator and owner would count the take on Sunday. Bob said the machine generated from the high 2k to the low 3k per week.



That's amazing coin! One of my favorites for sure. Makes sense if it was racking up non-stop 4 player games
 
when my grandpa was dealing with video games I was just a little kid that wasn't privy to the books at all. one particular exploit I cite as like being the end of my world was the day TMNT had to leave. imagine my mom trying to explain to 8 year old me that the game only was making $2 a day in 1991 -- I clearly didn't care about that. :p

when games were approaching about $3500-4000 (and my grandpa would often go the kit route whenever necessary, because if a game is hot enough, nobody will care if it's dedicated or not) you could have the game paid off in less than 2 months. and that was in the dumpy little Chicago south suburb of Crete, not a whole lot of people in the area like the arcades on the north side were turning out.

he had a pretty strict unwritten law about games that didn't earn: they didn't stay. they often got thrown on the truck with about 4 other games and dumped at an auction. he would then return with 4-6 different games and run them until they too didn't earn anymore. it's the polar opposite of the beercades and free play arcades of today, they can hold on to games that traditionally didn't make money, so long as somebody likes them.

obviously it was a pretty lucrative business. in the redemption arcades it's vastly harder to make that money back cause those things run about $14,000 a piece. I'm glad I'm not in the "operator" seat anymore.
 
I talked to an op several years ago that told me when Defender came out, it was making $800 a week for him.

I've also heard people say that when the original video poker games came out around 1980 or 1981, they would make over $1000 profit in 1 week, operator split, and pay for themselves the very first week.

I used to work for an op and the best earning game I had on my portion of the route was Golden Tee. In a good bar, the Golden Tee would make over $300 a week. I had one place I only went to every three weeks, and often the bill acceptor would fill up, and they'd start spending quarters to play it.... so you'd end up with the acceptor full and a couple hundred dollars in the bucket too. We didn't get a lot of the newer stuff but I had a location where Fast & Furious Super Bikes were earning nearly $300 a week too.



Interesting....I would think a GT in a good location would pull in more? Although even at $3.00 for 18, the gameplay is longer so maybe that's why?
 
While I didn't have access to "the books"(I know they were kept, but had no interest in looking through them), I *DID* help with counting/sorting of individual machine's "takes" from Odyssey.

Just a little back story; Initially, everything was "Quarters only". As things started to slack off in '83, they moved to "Quarters and tokens". Instead of opening up the coin door if someone claimed they lost a quarter, we'd have "Red Quarters", and later, "Red Tokens"... which just had some nail polish on both sides to denote a "free game". We also had this little spinney coin counter with a hand crank. Was cool as shit to a 15 year old. :D

Anyway, I'd be sent to pull the coin boxes, and run the count. While I couldn't tell you each individual count from a particular day, I remember that games like Donkey Kong, Stargate, Joust, and Dig Dug pulled in close to $100/ day each. The poker machines were where the money was at, though. No bill acceptors back then, so it was all quarters. We dumped them 5-6 times per day. Of course, they did "off the books" payouts.... but it was always "You didn't see that." "See what?" ;)

We rarely rotated games out, though... the only times that happened was when one was moved to a route location. Me and Perry weren't allowed to do the counts for those, as it didn't look "professional" to have "kids" do that. So I have no idea what the takes were at any location.
 
I have somebody that works for me that used to own the deli in my neighborhood when I was in my teens. I remember in his deli he had a donkey Kong machine and a Pac-Man machine and no matter what time of the day there was always a line of people willing to play. About a year ago I told him that I was into collecting the machines and I remember his deli having those two machines and if he remembered how much they earned per week. He said that each machine earned an average of $1500-$2000 per week!
 
I have somebody that works for me that used to own the deli in my neighborhood when I was in my teens. I remember in his deli he had a donkey Kong machine and a Pac-Man machine and no matter what time of the day there was always a line of people willing to play. About a year ago I told him that I was into collecting the machines and I remember his deli having those two machines and if he remembered how much they earned per week. He said that each machine earned an average of $1500-$2000 per week!


Wow, that's incredible. If someone put a quarter in every minute each hour for 14 hours straight all day, 7 days a week, that would yield you $1470.00 gross earnings on a machine.
 
slinging arcade games back in the 1980's can almost be compared to being a
pimp (the op) and renting out his whores (the arcade machines) as customers/clients
inserted their (quarters) to play with them. when they got bored of an arcade
game (whore), the pimp (op) had to find some new games (girls) to replace the old
and beat down ones in order to earn more income. sigh. musta been fun back then!
 
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