User:Sacoa

Sacoa Entertainment

Origins and history
Founded in 1957, by the visionary Mauricio Mochkovsky and his son Jorge. Started operating jukeboxes and Bally bingos in bars and sports clubs in Argentina.

Mauricio was taking a break from his struggling business as a construction subcontractor in Mar del Plata, Argentina. One day he visited a coffee shop called "Derby" and found out an interesting fact. While the jukebox was playing a certain tune, two guys chose a song by Domenico Modugno which was extremely popular those days. After the current tune ended, the Domenico Modugno song was played just once and he said "What a nice business this must be with several people paying for a service, which is rendered only once, while everybody is happy, as everyone thinks it is was played because of their choice". Mauricio asked the bartender how to get in touch with the owner of the jukebox. A few days later, Mr. Miguel Voutto sold Mauricio his small route, consisting of three Wurlitzer operating in the Derby, Opera and Bahia Blanca coffee shops.

Two years later, Mauricio met up with a man named Fabio Tempone, who had 15 pinball machines for sale and added those machines into the business route.

On 1960, Mauricio decided to visit the U.S. and buy better equipment. He made long lasting relationships with many industry legends, including Barney and Myron Sugerman, Al Simon, Len Schneller and Sam Weissman. The first fresh machine shipment included about 30 flippers, 20 bingos and a shuffle alley.

Later, sons Alex and Ricardo joined in, and after several years of operation, bingos were banned. In 1969, the company opened its own entertainment center in Mar del Plata, which was a huge success. This was the first Sacoa family entertainment center (FEC), before the term FEC was ever used in the world.

Jorge's sons Sebastian, Pol and Andres later joined the business, making their mark on the evolution of a company that quickly became the largest entertainment operator in the country, with over 35 centers in Argentina. Today, Sacoa has become a household name in Argentina, synonymous with family entertainment.

The facilities are strong on redemption and offer many indoors rides, including bumper cars, a ferris wheel, virtual reality simulators, small roller coasters, etc. The average size of their locations is 12,000 square feet, with the largest FEC measuring 40,000 square feet and featuring a dozen rides.

From Mauricio's and Jorge's vision, Sacoa Entertainment has evolved from the early days to a three-generation family business with 650 employees.