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RePlay Magazine Podcast - Frank 'The Crank' Seninsky
PodcastAnalysis updated 2d ago1 hr 7 min listen
If you’ve been in coin-op any appreciable amount of time, you know the name Frank Seninsky (maybe you know him by his alter ego “Frank the Crank”), and if you’re fortunate, you’ve had the...
Highlights
- Frank placed his first pinball machine, a Gottlieb North Star, in his Beta Theta Pi fraternity at Stevens College as a junior, which generated $150 in the first week and returned his $25 investment in 2-3 days.
- Frank's brother Richard has been working for Coastal as a technician and was one of the best mechanics in the industry, teaching Frank the finer points of machine servicing starting at age 12.
- Frank worked as a mechanical engineer for Public Service Electric and Gas Company while simultaneously building his amusement machine business and attending graduate school.
- John Estridge Sr. sponsored Frank to join AMOA's board of directors, which became one of the best things that ever happened to him professionally.
- Frank earned approximately $800,000 in consulting fees in a single year from a major contract involving three entertainment centers and 18-20 go-kart facilities.
- Frank and Bob Cushing (Betson) met on a turbulent flight to a bar mitzvah and became best friends and long-term business partners for 20+ years through their partnership Alphabet.
- Frank spent years lobbying for video lottery legalization in New Jersey, received a handshake agreement from the governor on a Friday, but the deal fell through by Monday.
- Joe Camerota, who was selected from Frank's network of 50-60 student helpers at various colleges, became a long-term partner and followed Frank's philosophy of giving back to AAMA (amusement industry).
- Frank was nominated for AMOA vice president but initially failed to secure the position, then was later nominated from the floor at the last minute through the efforts of Randy Chilton and Tammy Norbert Paulson.
- Frank created an 'international liaison' AMOA title (that was allegedly made up by Randy Chilton and Tammy Norbert Paulson) but took it seriously and brought AMOA invitations to BACTA (England), associations in Australia, Japan, and other international bodies.
Notable quotes
“I saw the price and I said, you know, this is a good buy. And I think I said something like maybe a dozen, maybe more. I don't remember. And you said, yeah. And I was like, okay, send them. You know, you got a deal.”
“I collected the machine at the end of the first week and it had $150 in it. So I gave the fraternity half. That was the deal. And I had $75 and the cost of the machine was $25. So in my mind, I think I figured out that return on investment was something like two to three days.”
“We go from, you know, girlfriends to wives to ex-girlfriends to ex-wives. And all through our history of 50-something years, we're like a married couple ourselves.”
“I should have been a little bit more selfish, but I just couldn't. That wasn't me. And that's not what AMOA taught me.”
“Frank, what are you doing this for? We don't have any vacations. If you get it passed, we're not going to make a dime.”
“If you all voted for me, how many of you are lying?”
“You guys were, I don't know who came first, but you're both going to be president, obviously, or you'll follow one another. You had a lot of work to do. And you guys were in New York City for some reason, or you flew in and took me to lunch with Karen and basically told me that if you come back on the AMOA board, we'll get you in as a vice president.”
“I learned something that I'll never forget from Euromat and BACDA, where they're always trying to upgrade their image... They commissioned studies. They paid for studies to be done on a particular subject that they wanted a lobby for, you know, from an independent agency.”
Entities
- Alpha· company
- Amusement Entertainment Management· company
- Betson· company
- Coastal· company
- National Entertainment Network· company
- Public Service Electric and Gas Company· company
- AAMA· organization
- AMOA· organization
- BACTA· organization
- Beta Theta Pi· organization
- Euromat· organization
- Bill Stone· person
- Bob Cushing· person
- Frank Seninsky· person
- Jerry Marola· person
- Joe Camerota· person
- John Estridge Sr.· person
- Randy Chilton· person
- Richard Seninsky· person
- Tammy Norbert Paulson· person
- Gottlieb North Star· product
- Palisade Amusement Park· venue
- Stevens College· venue
- Uppsala College· venue
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