Operators continued pulling equipment from locations at risk of flooding in the Plains and Midwest as this issue went to press. Others were tallying damages. Iowa bore the brunt of floodwaters with the Cedar River rising to fill downtown Cedar Rapids, forcing tens of thousands to evacuate. The river was expected to peak at over 35' (the river entered flood stage there at 12').
"The real tragedy is that we're going to lose 20 bars out of the deal, and none had flood insurance," said Larry Elbert of Camden Amusement & Vending, who spoke from the site of a temporary office in his home garage. After removing games from locations for three days from 9 a.m. to 2 a.m., stowing many at his two-story, 20,000-sq.-ft. headquarters, Camden's offices and shop took on water. (See photo at top showing the view out the office window; that's a location at right.)
"The last time I saw the office was on the news this morning," Elbert said, bracing for more equipment evacuations in Iowa City, where the river was expected to swell for days to come. "There was three feet of water over the loading dock. We moved everything to the second floor to get ready, but the entire shop was full of equipment. Two employees had to canoe to there."
Across town, Amuse Me Games & Vending's Steven Bray said, "The big one-two punch is not knowing if the locations we pulled our equipment out of will reopen and not having that income." They scrambled to pull at least 50 games before neighboring towns were evacuated, shut down and patrolled by the National Guard. Their company headquarters and bar didn't take on water but suffered power outages and beer shortages due to disrupted distribution.
Interstate, highway and road closures also plagued Wisconsin, where "it's hard to find anyone who hasn't been affected," according to Ralph H. Fleege of Mitchell Novelty in Milwaukee. He had heard from a dozen locations and counting with damages. "We got machines out, but mostly we were too late," he said, adding that the floods came on the heels of a winter season fraught with harsh weather and cost of heating issues. "You didn't know who was going to get flooded when or which way the water was going to come from. I just got a call from a guy because our machines were floating around in the basement."
Mitchell Novelty headquarters was situated on high enough ground as were the Brookfield, Wisc., offices of Wisconsin P & P Amusement, where Fred Weigel reported knowing of only one badly damaged location in a hotel at press time. Back in Iowa, Terry Moss said that Moss Distributing on the east side of Des Moines was sitting high and dry some 10 miles from the river, even as the city's downtown center was fast turning from a pond into a lake.
Gary Isner, who partnered with Harold Skripsky to found the world-renowned Enchanted Castle FEC near Chicago, has died. A graduate of Western Michigan University, his work with Skripsky at the Enchanted Castle earned him the U.S. Small Business Administration Entrepreneurial Success Award and induction into the SBA Hall of Fame.
"His visions made the Enchanted Castle what it is today," said Skripsky. "Way before the FEC industry had knowledgeable consultants and training programs and tradeshows, he put together the Enchanted Castle and grew it into one of the largest for that time and most successful FEC around. He was an amazing man."
AMI Entertainment has been given the rights to release the full back catalog from Radiohead to its network of digital jukeboxes. EMI Music cleared the use of Radiohead albums for all streaming and subscription services. Radiohead's music has been heavily requested by AMI customers. Titles like Amnesiac, Hail to the Thief, Kid A, OK Computer, Pablo Honey, The Bends and the newly released Best Of, were uploaded to the network during the second half of June. This is the first time in history that the entire EMI-owned Radiohead titles are being offered digitally and additionally marks the band's first appearance on the iTunes music store.
PokerTek Inc. is now offering multi-player tournament software for its Heads-Up Challenge amusement game. This allows up to eight players to play heads-up poker in a bracketed tournament just like the pros on TV. "Bracketed tournaments on Heads-Up Challenge are an exciting addition to our platform," said James Crawford, president. "Our customers and operators have been asking for this as an added feature, and we're pleased to bring it to them now." Heads-Up Challenge allows players to play Heads-Up Texas Hold 'Em Poker for amusement only. To learn more, call 888/694-8248.
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