ever, marketing topper John Lotz said execs armed with guns had to escort their employees out of the area as rioting heated up on Thursday.

Century Vending & Distributing also cleared out on Thursday, but suffered no damage. "Police came in and closed our building; they said we should evacuate," said Jerry Monday. "Fortunately we didn't have any trouble."

"At one point, rioters were coming down our street and hitting all the AMPM mini-markets. The National Guard set up a roadblock of dumpsters at the end of the street and it was still in place May 4."

Operators and locations suffered the worst damage. "We had a lot of locations trashed," reported a major operator in the area. "Rioters went after grocery stores, especially ethnic markets. Video games, kiddie rides and cranes were all targets. Rioters stole them, burned them, smashed them, anything they could do. I think our own industry got hit

pretty heavily because so many bars and other businesses were hurt. I know first-hand that one arcade in the L.A. suburbs was hurt, with some 15 or more games smashed, although not the entire arcade. The operator had some minority atten

'By Thursday night, it was
even worse than the TV
coverage could convey.
Driving home, I passed many
buildings on fire, looters, and
no police anywhere. The city
truly was a war zone.'

- Sandy Bettelman

dants and they got the kids to stop rioting."

In the aftermath of the riots, L.A. is looking at ways to rebuild and so is the amusement industry. "After the initial night of fires and looting,

our first call was to Betson Pacific," said C.A.'s Sandy Bettelman. "Even though we're competitors, things have been cool. We discussed how we could work together to help the many operators who lost equipment."

Sandy added that C.A. Robinson has given no serious consideration to relocating. "Anywhere else we could go would be less convenient for many of our customers, and it would increase our rents and overhead," he pointed out. "Considering that the last riot was 27 years ago, we hope it will be another 27 years before such a problem comes up again!"

Operator David Jackson, a leading voice in the Amusement Assn. of California, advised operators to review their location contracts, with an eye toward having coin-op equipment covered by the location's insurance of its contents. "Then when operators submit a claim, it's automatically paid," David said. "It's the best way to get covered."