RePlay Magazine Podcast - George McAuliffe
Welcome to Episode 1 of the RePlay Magazine Podcast, hosted by Randy Chilton, which will share interesting bits of “coin-op” history and entertaining stories from industry greats – the visionaries, legends and characters that make the business fun! Our first guest is George McAuliffe, founder of Pinnacle Entertainment Group. George has decades of experience and has touched just about every part of the industry at one time or another. On top of that, he’s one of the nicest guys you’ll me...
Kineticist’s take
George McAuliffe reflects on 45-year amusement industry career from arcades to FEC consulting.
Synopsis
Replay Magazine inaugural podcast features George McAuliffe of Pinnacle Entertainment Group discussing his 45-year career spanning private operators, publicly traded corporations, and consulting work. McAuliffe traces his path from Time Out arcade management through Edison Brothers, Dave & Buster's, crane/FEC operations, and ultimately founding Pinnacle Entertainment Group, sharing insights on family business partnerships and industry evolution.
Highlights
- Time Out (Tico Bonomo's company) may have invented the mall arcade in the late 1970s, competing with the Millman brothers in Chicago for that distinction
- Edison Brothers Stores was a $2 billion/year NYSE-listed company when it acquired Time Out in 1987 (after Sega acquisition)
- McAuliffe was part of taking Dave & Buster's from 2 locations to 7 locations before spinoff/independence
- Edison Brothers parent company hadn't missed a dividend since 1925 before entering Chapter 11
- McAuliffe's first consulting client for Pinnacle Entertainment Group was Disney
- Pinnacle currently working on five hotel deals, compared to roughly 10 total in 40 years of business
- McAuliffe wrote monthly columns for RePlay Magazine for 32 years before recently concluding his regular contributions
Entities
- Coinstar· company
- Dave & Buster's· company
- Edison Brothers Stores· company
- Kittleton Genda· company
- National Entertainment Network· company
- Pinnacle Entertainment Group· company
- Redemption Plus· company
- Sega· company
- Spare Time Entertainment· company
- Time Out· company
- RePlay Magazine· organization
- Dave Corriveau· person
- George McAuliffe· person
- Howard McAuliffe· person
- Julie McAuliffe· person
- Nick DiMatteo· person
- Randy Chilton· person
- Tico Bonomo· person
- Tom McAuliffe· person