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RePlay Magazine Podcast - George McAuliffe

Replay Magazine Podcast·podcast_episode·29m 48s·analyzed·May 9, 2025
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TL;DR

George McAuliffe reflects on 45-year amusement industry career from arcades to FEC consulting.

Summary

RePlay Magazine's 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.

Key Claims

  • 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

    low confidence · George McAuliffe, discussing early career; notes 'there's some debate in the industry' about who invented it

  • Edison Brothers Stores was a $2 billion/year NYSE-listed company when it acquired Time Out in 1987 (after Sega acquisition)

    high confidence · George McAuliffe, directly stated financial figures and acquisition timeline

  • McAuliffe was part of taking Dave & Buster's from 2 locations to 7 locations before spinoff/independence

    high confidence · George McAuliffe describing his role at Edison Brothers Mall Entertainment in early 1990s

  • Edison Brothers parent company hadn't missed a dividend since 1925 before entering Chapter 11

    medium confidence · George McAuliffe recalling parent company's financial crisis; stated from memory ('I think')

  • McAuliffe's first consulting client for Pinnacle Entertainment Group was Disney

    high confidence · George McAuliffe, directly stated as significant early success in founding Pinnacle

  • Pinnacle currently working on five hotel deals, compared to roughly 10 total in 40 years of business

    high confidence · George McAuliffe, contemporary business observation

  • McAuliffe wrote monthly columns for RePlay Magazine for 32 years before recently concluding his regular contributions

    high confidence · George McAuliffe and Randy Chilton discussing his column history at RePlay

Notable Quotes

  • “Dave, I say he forgot more about the arcade business than I ever knew. He was a really, really sharp guy.”

    George McAuliffe @ ~22:30 — Reflects respect for Dave Corriveau's expertise and the learning opportunity from association with Dave & Buster's co-founder

  • “I liked it a lot until I didn't.”

    George McAuliffe @ ~25:00 — Describes the shift from appreciating corporate environment at Edison Brothers to frustration when parent company financial crisis affected the entertainment division

  • “The biggest part is I know he's smarter than me, so it's not like I'm trying to convince him he's got to do it my way.”

    George McAuliffe @ ~51:00 — Explains the foundation of successful father-son partnership with Howard, emphasizing respect for son's capabilities

  • “People say we're experts only because we've already made all the mistakes.”

    George McAuliffe @ ~65:00 — Explains the value proposition of consulting work and experience-based expertise in the industry

  • “When I was a young guy, I couldn't wait till replay hit.”

    George McAuliffe @ ~72:00 — Testament to the importance of RePlay Magazine in educating industry professionals, showing long-term value of trade publications

Entities

George McAuliffepersonPinnacle Entertainment GroupcompanyHoward McAuliffepersonTime OutcompanyTico BonomopersonEdison Brothers StorescompanyDave & Buster'scompanySegacompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: George McAuliffe concluding 32-year run of monthly columns for RePlay Magazine, marking end of regular editorial contribution to trade publication

    high · McAuliffe: 'I just wrote my last article after 32 years maybe not my last but my last regular one'; Chilton confirms significance of the run

  • ?

    business_signal: Pinnacle Entertainment Group expanding into bowling center operations under Howard McAuliffe's leadership; additional major announcement anticipated

    high · George McAuliffe: 'he wants to get back into operations and maybe own a bowling center soon. Right. There may be another announcement in the near future.'

  • ?

    business_signal: Leadership transition at Pinnacle Entertainment Group with Howard McAuliffe assuming CEO role while George transitions to founder/client strategist position

    high · Randy Chilton mentions reading announcement same morning; George confirms Howard is CEO and details the transition; signals generational handoff in established consulting firm

  • ?

    community_signal: RePlay Magazine launching inaugural monthly podcast series with industry veterans as focus, signaling evolving media strategy for 50-year-old trade publication

    high · Randy Chilton introduces this as 'the inaugural replay podcast' with objective to feature industry legends and their stories rather than technical/product coverage

  • $

    market_signal: Pinnacle Entertainment Group's current portfolio includes significant consulting relationships (Disney historical, current clients include Spare Time Entertainment with 17 locations) and active hotel development projects (5 deals simultaneously)

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.089

0:00
Welcome to Replay Magazine's podcast, where we'll dive into the legends of interesting stories within the world of what we call coin-op entertainment. That's games and amusement machines you find in arcades, fun centers, bars, restaurants, and beyond. Replay's covered this business for 50 years and is joining forces with industry veteran and former association president Randy Chilton. He is chief revenue officer for National Entertainment Network, owned by Japanese amusement giant Kittleton Genda. And now here's Randy and this month's replay podcast. So welcome to the inaugural replay podcast. So this is something that I've been working with the replay group on and really wanted to put in place. There are some great industry legends that have some really good stories to tell. And we just wanted to be that place where we could hear them. So if you want to learn on, you know, card systems and tokens and the latest video game, well, you're on the wrong channel. We're going to talk to people that have really made a difference in this business and hear their stories. So that's really the objective of this. And today we're going to talk to George McAuliffe with the Pinnacle Entertainment Group. George has been doing this for decades. And what really fascinates me about George is he's been successful at the private route level, working for publicly traded companies. He's been the president of a large corporation. He's in partnership with his son. We could do five podcasts on George and the experience that he's had. So I hope you enjoy it. And thanks for giving us a listen. Let's jump in here. Hey, today we're talking to George McAuliffe, Pinnacle Entertainment Group. This is season one, episode one of our replay podcast. We aspire to have this be a monthly podcast. And who we want to talk to are people like George that have fascinating history in the business. Legends, I like to call them legends. George, I put you in that category. And before we get into it, and I want you to kind of walk me back to how you got here. The really interesting thing to me that I think will be interesting to our viewers is you've worked private, public, family, American, Japanese national. You've been all over the board and you've prospered at every level. So welcome, George. I really appreciate you doing this, being our number one. and uh but what i would like to don't want to go through the entire chronology but you got started in this business i think your brother had something to do with this so uh give us the highlights on how this whole thing started with you so yeah i don't want to give you every step along the 45-year trail because your viewers will be fast asleep pretty quick but uh it did start when I was, I don't know, my early 20s, 1979. My brother was six years older than I, and our father, unfortunately, had passed away at a young age. And he was my mentor and guide and kept me on the straight and narrow. And he got into the amusement business with a company called Time Out that was still pretty small in those days. I think they might have had 15 locations.
Dave Corriveau
person
Randy Chiltonperson
Redemption Pluscompany
Spare Time Entertainmentcompany
Coinstarcompany
National Entertainment Networkcompany
Kittleton Gendacompany
RePlay Magazineorganization
Nick DiMatteoperson
Tom McAuliffeperson
Julie McAuliffeperson

high · McAuliffe: 'today, at this moment, Pinnacle is working on five hotel deals. But I don't think I've done 10 in 40 years' and references Disney as first consulting client

  • ?

    community_signal: George McAuliffe's approach to father-son business partnership emphasizes mutual respect and deferring to Howard's intelligence rather than hierarchical control

    high · McAuliffe: 'the biggest part is I know he's smarter than me so it's not like I'm trying to convince him he's got to do it my way. I really want to know I want his help so that we get it right'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Nick DiMatteo recruited from Dave & Buster's to Pinnacle Entertainment Group by Howard McAuliffe

    high · George McAuliffe states: 'He brought in Nick DiMatteo. He recruited Nick from Dave and Buster's to join our team. And that's been a fabulous success.'

    • 3:43
    He was the number two guy to the owner, Tico Bonomo, who was the founder of Time Out. Tico may have invented the mall arcade. There's some debate in the industry, whether it was him or the Millman brothers in Chicago. But in any event, Tom, they were very innovative even then. They opened, they were developing a hotel, it was the Rytown Hilton, Westchester County, New York, and they were putting an arcade entertainment center, but it was more than an arcade. It had meeting space and dining space and this arcade. Back then, it was pretty far, you know, thinking. Today, just as an aside, today, at this moment, Pinnacle is working on five hotel deals. But I don't think I've done 10 in 40 years. You know what I mean? They were doing that first one. Was that the Bagatelle Place that I've heard? Yeah, Bagatelle Place at the Rytown Hilton. And there's a picture of us somewhere in tuxedos standing by the door welcoming Citibank executives. And we did a lot of bar mitzvahs and, you know, social functions as well. So he recruited me for that position.
    5:13
    And that led to you were there for how long were you there? For Bagatelle Place as the, quote, executive manager. that was my title, three years. And then I got promoted to regional supervisor. I kept Bagatelle Place in my portfolio, but I also had, I think, five other centers at that point.
    5:37
    Oh, and then, so that parlay, well, they were acquired by Edison Brothers. That's how you got over there. Is that correct? There was a few steps along the way. So fill in the blanks for me. Yeah. So Time Out was growing this whole time. So that provided opportunities for guys like me to advance. So it was regional supervisor with five stores. It was a regional manager with eight. And then I had to move. So we moved from Connecticut to Northern Virginia, and the company was based there. And so I was at that level for three years, then got promoted again to divisional sales manager, where I managed half. By that time, we had 70 centers. So I managed 35, mostly arcades.
    6:33
    And then in 1987, we were first acquired by Sega. Oh, I'll be darned. Yeah. So we were Sega's time out. They funded and we launched the first all-indoor multi-attraction family entertainment center. We kind of evolved from Arcade to FEC. And then we did, I think, two more under Sega, two more of those big ones, at which point Edison Brothers Entertainment, Edison Brothers Stores, was a big $2 billion a year retailer. New York Stock Exchange public company. They acquired us and moved us to St. Louis. My goodness, no wonder you know so much about Family Entertainment Centers. That some pretty great training ground Early in the Yeah absolutely You like well I won say you invented the Family Entertainment Center but hey I don know maybe you did No, first of all, I didn't. I was a cog in the wheel. Yeah, but you were there. I was there, and I got to kind of be the lead on the ground to pull it together, but the strategic thinkers were above my pay grade at that point. So now you're part of Edison Brothers and your career again after promotions, you end up being president of the very large division of Edison Brothers, if I remember correct. Yeah, at that point, we had done another acquisition of the Space Port chain and pulled it together. We were Edison Brothers Mall Entertainment.
    8:12
    The parent company also acquired Dave and Buster's right around that same time. 1990, and developed. So it took D&B from two locations, believe it or not, to seven, and then did a spinoff where the shareholders become independent. You know, D&B becomes independent, owned initially by the Edison shareholders. So I actually owned Dave & Buster's at one point. I'm kidding. I was a shareholder. Good for you. Well, hey, I do think you hung around with Dave and Buster talking about great training ground and mentors. What do you remember about that? What are some of the better stories there?
    8:54
    Well, you know, we were sort of corporate cousins, if you will. Edison Management, Andy Newman was the chairman of the board. And he was the driving force behind taking this retail company with, I think, 18 different retail brands. When you walk through a mall in the 90s, you walk past six or seven, any mall in the country, six or seven Edison stores, shoes, women's wear, men's wear. But anyway, he was the driving force. And a guy named Andy Halliday was the original president of EBME, Edison Brothers Mall Entertainment. So Dave and Buster would come to town and we'd be sitting in meetings together and we'd be strategizing on the entertainment side. And I got to, because, you know, Dave, who was the entertainment lead, Buster was the food and beverage guy. Dave, I say he forgot more about the arcade business than I ever knew. He was a really, really sharp guy. So I quickly realized I got to hang out with this guy. Yeah, smart. So we did. He was gracious enough to take me on ride alongs and so on. Unfortunately, I had just given up my party days and he liked to at the end of the day, he liked to have a cocktail.
    10:31
    So, you know, we didn't. Who knows what could have happened had I been more of a party guy at that point. But in the meantime, learned a heck of a lot from him. And you're part of a large publicly traded, at a spread at the time, I think you said? Two billion a year. Corporate sales. You're in the corporate world with one of the largest companies in the industry. You're in the big corporate world. How'd you like that compared to, you've done everything, but what do you remember about being part of that big corporation? I liked it a lot until I didn't. The opportunity to learn and grow, unbelievable. I wouldn't trade it for anything. St. Louis, great town. We had great experiences. My three sons actually grew up there.
    11:27
    That was all great. Made some really good friends at Edison Brothers, fellow Edisonians, we call ourselves. We still share St. Louis Cardinal tickets to this day. Very cool. And my wife and I go on vacation every year with other couples that are Edisonians. So that part was all terrific. When I say until it wasn't, the parent company actually got in financial trouble. They hadn't missed the dividend since 1925, I think. And all of a sudden, the apparel business, when people stopped wearing suits, right they had moved heavily into menswear for young guys who were going to the to the office and needed you know suits all of a sudden that was going away and they didn't they they wound up in chapter 11 we were the most valuable we were profitable we had a good you know business on the entertainment side but we were small compared to the yeah the bigger division so So we were the first ones up on the block.
    12:39
    And in fact, I tried to buy Edison. We had a court-approved deal with the bankruptcy court approval, but it was subject to higher and better bids. Namco came in and wound up owning it. They were able to fold it in where we were trying to pull it out, and the economics just were better for them. So we walked away and, you know, we came out okay in the end. And I started Pinnacle. Pinnacle out of St. Louis. Was Howard your partner at the time? Or, well, he was probably pretty young at the time. Well, my whole family, he was 1996. So he was a junior in high school. Yep. His brother was a freshman in high school. And his other brother was in seventh grade. So I guess we all started it together because on the operating side, I did the consulting and I got real lucky. My first client was Disney. That's amazing. And yeah, there's some stories there. But in the meantime, one day the phone rang. And, well, you know this. You were at Sugarloaf, I think, at the time, where you were killing it with just expanding with Walmarts with crane machines. We always... Thank you. Yeah.
    14:09
    So, you know, I was able to watch your success. We knew the power of cranes from our arcade world. They saved us back in the 80s.
    14:21
    So anyway, the phone rang and someone offered us the opportunity to test with Walmart with the promise of picking up more stores in southern Illinois and eastern Missouri. Right. So based in St. Louis, that was kind of perfect. So we did, I think we had six stores to test. And they said take the maybe it was 12 but they said test these stores and let talk in six months But we did so well with them By the end of six months we had 50 locations And then I was like I don want to get too big That's hard work when you're operating 50, you know, yourself. Yes. But going back to your question, was Howard a partner? He wasn't technically a partner.
    15:10
    But we started with this test scenario. Machines were delivered to my garage at home. And the plush was mixed on our, literally on our living room floor.
    15:24
    And by the time we, you know, grew it and went with some other accounts and we had our own FEC in Puerto Rico. We had a partnership in Puerto Rico. We think we had a hundred cranes on the street down there. A nice business. Yeah. And by then we had office warehouse space and yeah, it was a nice business. By then, I think we were up to, not counting Puerto Rico, a container every three weeks of plush. So when I think of, you know, trying to mix it between the couch and the fireplace, kind of interesting. Yeah, a lot of stories like that in this industry. So you sold that to CoinStar back in the day, and then you moved full-fledged into full-time consulting. That's the Pinnacle Entertainment Group. that was doing the consulting and you had huge clients, correct? Yeah. We always kept, even through our operating time, I always worked with one or two other clients. Yeah. So when 2004 is when we sold to Coinstar, the operating business. And then so coincidentally, Puerto Rico had a terrible economic downturn. So we wound up, you know, selling off our entertainment operating assets. And I started doing more and more full time consulting. And this is the part that I really like. So at this point in time, Howard is, oh, by the way, I just read in my little replay email this morning that you've been replaced as CEO of the company. Yes. This is the right time. I literally just saw that yesterday.
    17:18
    So Howard is CEO and you are chairman of the board. I don't know. What are you? I am a founder and client strategist. Well, that sounds like a lofty title. I think I have that.
    17:37
    That's your corporate world coming out, making up titles. Yeah. Yeah, what's happened there, and, you know, it's kind of nice in the context of the story and the questions you've asked. It's kind of nice that when you think back to that high school kid, Nixon Plus. Now, you know, he and his brothers, I used them as secret choppers in my timeout days. They were six, seven, eight. I would, I remember one particular mall. There was a Roy Rogers, if you remember them, fast food restaurant. Yeah. They had it right across from the timeout. So I would go in, get a cup of coffee, hand them, you know, five bucks each. and they would go into the arcade play and come back and give me a full report. And hey, you better, you know, it was kind of comical because after a couple of years, they could start talking about, well, this guy's spending too much time in the office. He's not out on the sales floor. So, you know, he grew up in the business. And then with Pinnacle, more so, you know, he would go open locations for us and so on. But meanwhile, he went to college and he actually has a master's and tried a different career, went into the nonprofit world. He was the executive director of a large nonprofit in St. Louis when his wife married his lovely wife and our great daughter-in-law, Reem, who at the time was recruited by Microsoft. She's a marketer. She's now a pretty highly placed marketer with Google. But at the time, she was recruited to Microsoft, and they moved to Seattle. So he decided to give up his position. And by that point, I was actually consulting with Redemption Plus.
    19:38
    I wanted to build the crane and merchandiser. They were great at Redemption in those years, but not so focused on cranes and merchandiser. So anyway, Howard took that job. And, you know, I forget whether he doubled or tripled the sales of that division. And then when I later on, I wound up as a partner in Redemption Plus, made an investment, came in as a partner. But then he and I decided we wanted to be partners, the two of us. So I was able to shake hands with Ron Hill, the owner of Redemption Plus. Our deal was that at any time I could pull Pinnacle out. So we did. And that was 2016 when Howard actually invested in Pinnacle and became a partner. So this industry is full of family-owned businesses, fathers working with their sons, fathers, granddads, multi-generational. I'm a product of a family-owned business. And I know sometimes that's not without a lot of challenges. It's been a while for me, but I remember it's not easy. As a matter of fact, it's quite difficult. But you and Howard seem to have landed in a really good space. What do you attribute that to? You know, we had it a little bit differently than the classic, you know, paradigm of, you know, some head-butting and so on. You know, it happens from time to time. When I drive him too crazy, he'll hang up the phone and then I sit and laugh because I know that I crossed the line.
    21:23
    Son's going to do that. Yeah. But I, you know, I really attribute it to his mother because he's got her personality, which is, you know, pretty even keeled and putting up with me when I get with my patients. I'm not known for my patients at all times. So he knows how to handle that. And it's not that often, hopefully, especially as I get older. uh we just you know and i maybe the biggest part is i know he's smarter than me so it's not like i'm trying to convince him he's got to do it my way i really want to know i want his help so that we get it right and that's really with him what we announced this week with howard taking over For one thing I getting older He wants to grow the company and he and he should at his age He wants to get back into operations and maybe own a bowling center soon Right. There may be another announcement in the near future. So and I don't necessarily want to do those things. I'm happy to be on the team that does them, but I don't want to be waking up in the middle of the night worrying about if I'm going to, you know, somebody's going to show up for work tomorrow.
    22:50
    So he's that's his vision for the company. And really, for the last couple of years, he's been kind of making those decisions. He brought in Nick DiMatteo. He recruited Nick from Dave and Buster's to join our team. And that's been a fabulous success.
    23:10
    Nick's talent and experience added to the team and the bandwidth allowed us to grow. So he's been driving it all and it was time for him to officially take the helm. Well, kudos to you. You put a business plan in place while you're here to direct it. And I'm sure Howard will do great things and do it for a very long time. So good for you. Good for you. Yes. You know, the one thing is that I'm not retiring, nor do I have a three. You're too young to retire. I wasn't suggesting you're retiring. Yeah. Well, I just wanted to say that because, you know, I love what I do. I really love working with clients because you're, you know, part teacher, part collaborator.
    24:00
    And that's what I like to do best. Hence my title of client specialist or strategist. I'll have to we don't have.
    24:10
    You can change it if you want. So you've got some young folks, hopefully, watching this. And, you know, if I was a young guy and I could have a mentor, I mean, you would be like perfect. But you're probably not going to be able to do that. So, you know, there's so many different ways a guy could get involved in this business. What advice would you give a young person wanting to get into this business with your vast experience and knowledge? Well, I guess it would depend on their financial position.
    24:41
    If their financial position is like mine was when I started, you might look at the corporate route. Oh, yeah. Good point. You might call up Randy Chilton and impress him with how much he wanted to get into the business.
    24:59
    Dave and Buster's main event, which is part of Dave and Buster's. Right. You have the big guys. You have some great companies like our client, Spare Time Entertainment, with 17 bowling entertainment centers. They operate at a high level. So for a young person to get in an organization like that, where there is growth opportunity and learning opportunity, that would be my advice for that person. And if you're able, if you put a few bucks away, perhaps, or you have investors and you want to do it on your own, this might be self-serving because we're in the business of helping people, you know, just like that to open and operate and understand the pluses and minuses. Like I said earlier, you know, people say we're experts only because we've already made all the mistakes. So some of the value that we, and we're not the only ones that do this. There are others out there too. But a good consultant can probably help you if you're new to the business. Definitely the industry associations and the educational programs that usually go with them.
    26:20
    Reading the trade magazines. Read a magazine to be a good one to read. replay podcast here absolutely replay is you know been great i just wrote my last article after 32 years maybe not my last but my last regular one right your last monthly column that's quite a run yeah and what an opportunity and i think i said this in that last article that Eddie, Adlam, and then Ingrid and Key and the rest of the team there. But when I was a young guy, I couldn't wait till replay hit.
    27:02
    Tico Bonomo again and my brother Tom were smart enough to educate their management team and develop some depth. And we all got a subscription to replay. And I learned a ton. Yeah, that's a great point. Read your trade magazine. Great point. Yeah. So that work hard, be honest. That's the people like you and and other veterans and hopefully us that have been around a long time. You do that because you you have credibility and not over promising. right you know the one thing i i would also recommend there's a book called the seven habits of highly effective people you sure talked about it before stephen covey gets updated every few years great book right especially for a young person absolutely it's quick and it's just great advice you know here's a blueprint for success no matter what you're doing I think I've got like three copies of it at home because I keep forgetting I already have it.
    28:15
    That never happens, does it? Wow, you've got so much. This is begging for an episode two down the road because we've just scratched the surface. But, well, let's wrap this up. I'm honored and thankful that you carved out this time and told so many great stories. You and I have known each other for, well, I'm sure it's 30 years. And if I do the math, we might get close to four, but I'm not going to do that. But it's been a long time. It's been a long time. You've been a good friend. And you and your lovely wife, Julie, of how many years? 30, 40, what?
    28:55
    47. Man, you've got the golden wedding anniversary coming up. So great family man, great industry guy, good friend. I really appreciate your time, George. and we'll see where we take it from here. But thanks for your time, buddy. Hey, everything you just said, thanks for the kind words. I could just put your name in there, insert Randy in there. Well, go ahead. I'm kidding.
    29:23
    But it has been great and it's been great friendship for all these years. And I appreciate you thinking of me for this. Absolutely.
    29:33
    Anybody who knows me knows I like to tell a story. You tell some good ones. All right, buddy. Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate it. Same here. Thank you. Have a good one, George.
    29:43
    Game over.