Spare Cash : Regal Lanes in Orange is the first bowling alley in the nation to offer patrons ATM service.
Big national and regional banks have blanketed the state with about 14,000 automated teller machines--more ATMs than in any other state--but a community bank in Signal Hill has gone where no other institution has yet ventured.
Home Bank has installed an ATM at Regal Lanes in Orange, making the bowling alley the first one in the nation to sport a money-dispensing machine.
“Certainly we are not a major player in the ATM market,” said James Staes, Home Bank’s president. “But, for now, we are the major player in bowling alleys.”
The bank’s decision to put the ATM into the state’s largest bowling center continues an industry march toward making the electronic machines more accessible to the public while at the same time generating fees for banks.
Across the country, banks are putting limited-use ATMs--mainly cash-dispensing machines that do not accept payments or deposits--wherever large numbers of people congregate.
Bank of America, for instance, has installed some of its 3,000 ATMs at airports, hospitals, universities, Disneyland and Yosemite National Park.
Of 80,000 ATMs nationwide, about 12,000 are in such locations as race tracks, Nevada casinos, betting parlors, supermarkets and discount stores such as the Price Club, said David Robertson, president of the Nilson Report in Santa Monica, a newsletter for the electronic debit and credit-card industry.
“The trend now is to use smaller machines that dispense cash only and put them off-site, as opposed to deposit-taking ATMs at bank branches,” Robertson said.
For Home Bank, the Regal Lanes location is its first off-site ATM and its first bilingual machine, able to display instructions in either English or Spanish. The 13-branch bank is negotiating with Cal State Dominguez Hills to put its second off-site machine in the school’s new student union.
The bank’s bowling alley ATM is helping Regal Lanes, one of its longtime customers, as well as filling in a service area between the bank’s Irvine and Brea branches--two of its five Orange County offices, said Ken Hurley, a Home Bank senior vice president.
And, like other institutions that find fewer good loans to make, the bank is looking to ATMs to bolster its revenue. “Banks in these tough times are looking for ways to raise non-interest income, like service charges and fee schedules,” Hurley said.
Robertson said Home Bank will need about 5,500 transactions a month to make the Regal Lanes ATM profitable. Hurley said the machine would be profitable if 20% of the bowling alley’s customers--3,500 league bowlers and as many as 6,000 others a week--used it every month.
Home Bank, like many institutions, does not charge its own customers for using its ATMs. But non-bank customers typically are charged 50 cents to $1.50 for every ATM transaction, Robertson said. The fee covers the cost of using one of the ATM networks, like Cirrus or Star, to clear the transactions while adding some money to banks’ revenues.
ATM fees irk many people.
“I don’t go to these machines very often because I don’t like to pay $1 every time I use them,” said Valerie Harley of Fountain Valley as she approached the Regal Lanes ATM on Friday evening.
But it’s hard to beat the convenience.
“Now I don’t have to go to the bank before coming here,” said Ken Garmon of Fullerton as he started bowling in his Friday night league, called the Phoenix Club. “And I just remembered tonight that we need to pay cash during the last three weeks of league play, so this is very convenient.”
Regal Lanes’ general manager, Jeanie Tharp, came up with the idea last year of putting an ATM in the 72-lane bowling alley. She said the machine is useful for her operation in several ways.
“It cuts down on the number of checks we get, which means fewer bad checks, and gives customers more ready cash,” she said. That cash can be spent not only on bowling but also at Regal Lanes’ arcade and its karaoke bar.
“We’ve had good feedback,” Tharp said. “We should have done this a long time ago.”
The investors who own Regal Lanes are negotiating with Home Bank for ATMs at one of their two other bowling centers: Irvine Lanes in Irvine and Sequoia Lanes in Buena Park. The investors also own four Racquetball World facilities and several golf courses, including the Mile Square Golf Course in Fountain Valley.
Money Machines Multiply Nationwide, there are 80,000 automated teller machines, 17.5% of which are in California. While one expects to find ATMs at banks and thrifts, lately the cash-dispensing machines have been popping up in unusual places. States With Most ATMs Five states account for half of the nation’s ATMs. Calif.: 14,000 N.Y.: 8,600 Mich.: 6,700 Tex.: 5, 990 Fla.: 4,700 Where California’s ATMs Are: Off-site: 1,960 Banks, thrifts: 12,040 Change of Venue Some typical and atypical off-site locations: Supermarkets, gas stations, horse-racing tracks, dog-racing tracks, casinos, fast-food outlets, convenience stores. Source: Nilson Report
