Funland to eliminate game tickets this summer

For decades, visitors to Funland in Rehoboth Beach have used two types of tickets – green for rides and orange for games. Beginning this summer, the Boardwalk amusement park will stop issuing the orange tickets.

The goal is to reduce waste, labor, dust and storage required, said Ian Curry, a grandson of Funland co-founder Al Fasnacht, who bought the park with his parents and brother in 1962. There’s also a belief that this will streamline the redemption process, he said, recognizing that some customers will miss the process.

“These tickets have been used for decades to allow customers to have fun playing games and winning tickets that can be redeemed at our redemption counter,” said Curry, speculating that Funland may be one of few arcades left still using game tickets.

Funland issues a few million redemption tickets each year. The dispensing and shredding creates waste and layers of dust that can affect a machine's ability to work correctly, he said.

Curry provided some of the ongoing maintenance requirements associated with having game tickets – vacuuming the machines that dispense and those that count tickets multiple times a season due to the dust from dispensing and cutting; sharpening the ticket eater blades that cut those millions of tickets multiple times per season; cleaning dispensing sensors often; refilling ticket stacks for each machine multiple times per day; sorting out ticket jams daily so customers can get the tickets they won; emptying ticket waste from the ticket eaters twice daily.

Funland’s recycling efforts to cut back on waste have been well documented over the years. Curry said they’ve been recycling tickets for the past 10 years too.

“I was told they go on to make toilet paper,” said Curry.

After last season, Curry said the park only had a couple boxes of 2,000 tickets left. The 5-by-3-by-15-foot storage space used to store tickets is empty, he said.

The new card system will also be available to use on other electronic games, such as the cranes and Skee-ball, said Curry. However, he said, the cranes will also accept bills for those wanting to use cash, and Skee-ball will also have coin mechanisms for those wanting to use quarters.

Curry said Funland will still honor the orange tickets won in previous seasons. There will be a ticket eater available for anyone who brings their tickets in, he said.

Looking forward, Curry said the biggest challenge for the card system will be informing guests, because they’ve been using tickets for so long.

Funland’s 11 midway games will continue to be cash-only. Rides will continue to use green tickets.

“The fact that our ride tickets and midway games are not changing is definitely a big part of the message we are trying to get out to avoid confusion,” Curry said.

Another thing that’s not changing is the annual opening date – the Saturday of Mother’s Day weekend, which is May 10 this year.