A few years after bringing video gaming to his establishment, Jim Talerico was frustrated. The owner of Mama Luigi’s, a Bridgeview, Illinois -based restaurant founded in 1948, Talerico found the terminal operator he was working with didn’t respond to his repeated requests for newer and better equipment.
Mama Luigi’s officially selected Accel as its terminal operator in March 2017, and the difference was immediately apparent to Talerico.
“When they went to install, they were ready,” he explains. “As soon as the space was available for them to put their equipment in, they put it in, got it hooked up, and we were up and running."
This testimonial features certain detail about the Illinois gaming market that, while accurate at the time of filming, may not reflect current policies.
The proof of impact is in the numbers: From September 2016 to February 2017 (the six months preceding Mama Luigi’s transition to Accel), the Net Terminal Income (NTI) from video gaming was $66,057. Following the switchover, the restaurant’s NTI from video gaming rose to $79,654 from April to September 2017, an increase of nearly 21 percent. And that’s not the only thing that’s improved. Talerico points to the service provided by Accel as a clear advantage.
“It’s been great,” he says. “We have no problem: Make a phone call, and typically they’re here within about an hour. We’ve had no problem at all with them coming out, whether it’s a ticket jam or ATM needs to be replaced or something inside there needs to be changed. It’s been very good."
We’ve had an excellent relationship with Accel from the very beginning. They put the machines in. They’ve helped us as far as the signage, the marketing and those kind of things really made a big difference in the amount of exposure that we have with our customers. That helped out quite a bit and our customers are more aware of the presence of the machines now.
When they went to install, they were ready, the equipment was ready as soon the space was available for them to put their equipment in they put it in, got it hooked up and we were up and running.
Our previous operator, hadn’t given us an upgrade on machines or anything for the course of our contract. We had a number of times had asked for upgrades or we had heard of other locations that had newer machines and what have you and they just weren’t able to satisfy our needs for upgraded equipment. When Accel came in, we have all the latest games, the latest machines, a little bit more variety, and it’s improved our income with them tremendously.
As far as the service, it’s been great. We have no problem, make a phone call, typically their here within about an hour. Occasionally it’s been a little bit longer but depends on the time of day and how busy they are and traffic I understand that. We’ve had no problem at all with them coming out. Whether it’s a ticket jam or ATM needs to be replaced or something or something inside there needs to be replaced or changed. It’s been very good.
Heidi has done a great job. More times than not she’s letting me know what needs to be done as far as any kind of licensing with the state or county or whatever anything or something that is maybe due she gives me a reminder. She brings in marketing material for us. She’s just on top of it. That part of it is really a big improvement over what we’ve had in the past.
When I first decided I was going to start looking for another company, I just driving up and down the street and seeing the places where Accel is already there. Their obviously doing a good job because they are bringing more and more people into their business. So in that regard, I figured I would be going with a quality company that really thinks about their customers, which is me, because of the marketing that they do, the signage they put out there. They’re not skimpy about giving us what we need to promote our end of the business. They're doing a great job.