![[full]](Images/funhouse.gif)
It all started back in early 2001 when the Founder and CEO of BMI Gaming,
David Young stumbled upon a small local "mom & pop" gaming repair shop in Broward County, Florida, in which he discovered and purchased his very first pinball machine (Funhouse) for his new home.
Having not played pinball in years due the lack of pinball machines in many
arcade centers, David immediately fell back in love with the game, and started
his present-day passion with first collecting, then restoring modern pinball
machines, then video games, and then just about everything else!
His pinball machine collection quickly grew from one to over fifteen pinball machines in the space of less than a year, and David was forced to rent out a
local warehouse to store them all!
Then on one historic day in late 2001, while David was taking delivery of yet another machine for his burgeoning gaming collection at the warehouse, a man walked up to David out of the blue and said :
" Wow...... You sell pinball machines ? Cool ! "
At first, David was surprised by this comment, and then told the man that no, he did not sell
pinball machines, but was in fact a private collector of them. But after the man pleaded with
David to take a look at his games, he agreed to let him inside the warehouse for a quick peek.
A few minutes into exploring his collection, the man offered David a very handsome price
for one particular machine (Twilight Zone) out of the blue, and after some thought, David agreed
to sell it to him. The very next day, the man showed up to pay for the machine, but also brought
along a friend who was also very eager to buy a pinball machine - and David wound up selling
machines to both men that day..... just so he could reinvest the handsome profits made to find
and purchase even more pinball machines for his rapidly growing collection!
From that encounter, David starting thinking about how very difficult it was to locate top quality
arcade games that were totally restored, from a "brand name" firm, who provided nationwide
delivery and service, and the apparently untapped market and demand for commercial-quality
games that could be bought, delivered, serviced and played in either the home or office.
From this realization, and from the profound enjoyment pinball machines and arcade games
brought to him, David started researching "on the side" the possibility of entering the emerging
market for home, office and corporate arcade gaming entertainment, and on a whim, in 2002
he decided to learn how to program in HTML and create a tiny website that initially offered just
a few machines from his collection, to "test the waters", so to speak, for a proof of concept
test for another web-based business that he was at this time deep in the middle of starting up.
And what a test it was - Within a few weeks of launching his tiny three page web site, David
sold out his entire pinball machine collection, and was receiving hundreds of emails a month
from folks and firms all across America and all over the world, wanting to buy his games.
David quickly realized that he might be onto something big, and then quickly started a in-depth
research project of the commercial and residential coin-operated machine market, by contacting
various manufacturers, game collectors and technicians across the country to learn about the
commercial side of the market, and by attending various private shows and industry trade
events featuring coin-operated products, to learn all about the industry from the ground up.
Based on his extensive research project, David determined three separate factors:
One, there did not exist any international firm devoted strictly to catering to the needs of both the
commercial, corporate and home user for commercial coin-op products in the USA, or anywhere
else in the world. Sure, there were plenty of small "one-man bands" and "mom and pops" working
out of basements, garages or small shops with a website, or individuals who sold older beat-up
games via eBay or other auctions sites, and a handful of commercial distributors who cater to
arcades and operators, that would occasionally sell sub-standard and heavily used products taken
in on trade, but no firm could really say they were totally focused on restoring, selling, servicing,
supporting and catering to the home, commercial and corporate markets on a nationwide basis.
Two, there currently not a way for consumers, commercial users or corporate buyers to safely
purchase a product from a nationally recognized firm that could provide machines backed with a
rock-solid warranty, nationwide delivery and service, lifetime technical support geared toward the
first-time game owner, and most importantly (due to the many firms who sold "junk" or "abused"
games via eBay and various other internet sites, then leaving them high and dry with a broken
game) some sort of accountability of their "track record" with game buyers, and at the same time,
offering buyers a safe online shopping experience through enrollment with such organizations as
the Better Business Bureau Online Reliability Program, SquareTrade Resolution Program and HackerSafe, to guard against credit card fraud, and to separate the company from the many
unscrupulous coin-op dealers who frequently misrepresented the quality of their products online.
From the above observations, David (who was already a successful businessman and serial
entrepreneur with three profitable startup firms under his belt) concluded there might be a real
opportunity in the market for a nationally-based coin-op firm that would focus primarily on the
home and corporate user, but who would also plan on offering its exceptional services and
innovative ideas in the industry to the larger commercial gaming market in time.
And from these observations, the inspiration and vision of BMI Gaming was formed.
Since that first idea , BMI Gaming has grown to become the world's leading coin-op gaming
company catering to home and business users, not only in the USA, but all over the world, now
with customers in 90 different countries and all 50 states, with customers ranging from Family Entertainment Centers, arcades, bars, pubs, restaurants, night clubs, hotels, resorts, casinos,
cruise ships, employee break rooms, office lobbies/waiting rooms, model homes, nursing and
retirement centers, research and design labs and other commercial recreational facilities to non
profit organizations, schools, universities, gyms, churches, hospitals, youth centers, military
bases and local, state and federal government entities along with many Fortune 1000 firms to
college students, young families, baby boomers and retired folk to Wall Street traders, business professionals, major league athletes, rock musicians and broadcast, print, radio and movie stars.
With over 1,500,000 + unique visitors per year, BMI Gaming remains the world leader on the
web, offering its customers over 1400 + amusement, gaming and vending products, spanning
over 600 web pages which contains over 725,0000 words, and with over one gigabyte of total
online content at last count, and which continues to grow on a daily basis.
BMIGaming.com has been recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the "Top 500" Fastest Growing
Private Firms" in 2007, by PriceWaterhouseCoopers as one of the "Hot 100 Fastest Growing
Private Firms in America" in 2006, and by Internet Retailer Magazine as one of the "Top 500
Internet Retailers in America", in both 2006, 2007 and for the third year in a row in 2008.
BMIGaming.com has appeared in prominent national publications and broadcasts like CNN,
The New York Times, Fortune Magazine, Newsweek, The Robb Report, Wired, Entrepreneur
Magazine, PBS, MSNBC.com, FHM, Maxim and many other newspapers and magazines.
Click here to read Welcome Letter from our CEO
Click here to read what our Customers have to say about us
Click here to see our Awards and what the Press has to say
Click here to learn more about BMI Worldwide in general
