The NYC basement laundry room--an unrecognized monopoly industry?

You know, living in a highrise without any laundry machines in my apartment, I have come to the conclusion that the company that runs our laundry and dryer machines (Coinmach) essentially is getting away with running a monopoly.

More concerning, New York is a perfect city for a laundry industry monopoly because so many thousands, perhaps millions, of people live in these apartment buildings of which few have their own in-unit laundry machines, and due to inconvenience most renters are essentially forced to get their laundry done in the basements of their own buildings.

I pay $1.90 per load, as well as $1.90 per dry. Thus to do one load of laundry, it costs me $3.80. These guys can charge whatever they want, in a sense, because they completely own the laundry service of not only our building, but our whole complex, and given how large Coinmach is, probably hundreds of complexes throughout the city.

Add to that what I suspect to be semi-criminal behavior (something which I have come to expect from corporate America)--ie laundry machines that are frequently out of order (without a sign posted) yet.....hmmm.....still manage to take money from your card when you insert it. Then, of course, the onus is on you to call the company and ask them to send you a check for your $1.90 back--a menial task that I'm sure most people wouldn't bother doing, thus another revenue boost for the company.

I know there are bigger fish to fry out there, but for some reason something about these laundry machine companies irritates me. Something just doesn't seem right here. In a city like New York, should they be regulated in the same way that we regulate power, water, etc utilities?