Business wants games on-site - How's that work?

pomme

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I collect, refurbish and maintain my own personal collection of arcade games.

A new business close by (a combo bar/laundrymat!) wants me to put a couple games on site. I've never done anything like that before.

Is this legal? Do the games need to be certified/licensed by the state in any way? (NC)

What is a normal split of the money a game makes? I was thinking 50/50, am I way off?

What if I have a cab running MAME, but only the one game that matches the cabinet (I do own the PCB). I'm thinking that's a hard "no" but I thought I'd ask..

I have to keep my finished games in the basement of my apartment because I don't have room for them. It's sad to have a minty DK cab sitting in a dark basement not getting used.

Any advice anyone could give would be appreciated.
 
It's sad to have a minty DK cab sitting in a dark basement not getting used.

It's more sad to have a minty DK cab sitting in a bar getting abused.

Search the forum a little for this exact topic. I think the majority of responses discourage this, but you have to make your own decision in the end.

Kerry
 
Tax laws will vary according to state, so do some research. My state (TX) requires you to get an operator's license ($250) then a tax sticker ($60/yr) for each machine. And then you have to report income at tax time (so document it well).

A 50/50 split is probably a good start. Hopefully they keep someone on premises when their open so you know the game will not be broken into - otherwise you'll need some lockbars, and will probably want to put average-condition games in there.

A MAME or multi cab would probably be fine - especially running one game - if it boots up right to the game-select menu. I know of quite a few multi's on location.

You'll need to figure out what games will make the most money. If it's part bar, will kids be allowed? Will they want fighters, old school, golden tee, megatouch, etc?
 
Search the forum a little for this exact topic.

I did but didn't get any relevant results. Is there a particular phrase or something I should be looking for? Sorry, don't mean to gum up the forum.

Thanks for the feedback so far. It's helpful. I should mention that the place is pretty ritzy, as far as bars/laundymats go. I would expect a higher level of respect on the games here than I would at a regular bar or laundrymat. But still, I get what you're saying.
 
You probably won't make enough money on them to cover the cost of the abuse and damage they'll take while on site.

I offered to help a local skating ring repair a few of the machines they have. But the cost for rebuilding the things was more than he makes on them in a year. So even though he could have several nice classics on hand it's not worth it to him to drop about $100 each on them to make them look good and work well.

-JM
 
I think it will end up being alot more work and trouble than it's worth. I bet you could keep 100% of the money and still not make it worth your time. People barely play these old games for free much less pay to play them.
 
Man.. bummer..

What the hell is wrong with people? Arcade games are the coolest thing in the world!
 
I think it will end up being alot more work and trouble than it's worth. I bet you could keep 100% of the money and still not make it worth your time. People barely play these old games for free much less pay to play them.

I would tend to think this too, but I was shocked to find out a local place made on games per month. Guy was not bsing me either. He has a single old 90's pin and 8 "classics". Definition of a classic here would be a game like Centipede in a horribly converted cabinet. Games are all $.25, no redemption games, at $.25 per play and 3 for $1.00 on the pin, they pulled in $1,500 / month. His take on that is 50%, so $750. I was really surprised it was anything to close to that.
 
I beg to differ here. I maintain 7 machines for a local pizza joint in town. He has them in the hallway outside his joint:



He's making about $30 a month on the DK, Ms Pac, Mortal Kombat, and Tetris. The Mario Bros, Centipede, League Bowling are all bringing in about $15 a month. Cost to run each machine is about $8 a month. I've replaced 1 PCB in the tetris, serviced the trackball in the Centipede once, and recapped a monitor in the Donkey Kong during that time, costing him about $150.

So he's cleared about a thousand bucks this past year. He's not getting rich by any means, but it's nice pocket change to have, for sure. They're his machines, so he keeps the take. But I get free pizza whenever I want it. :D

I'd say just work out whatever deal you want with the business owner. Make them understand that you're doing THEM a favor by placing a machine there, and offer to let them keep 50% of the take if THEY pay for damages & repairs, or let you keep 100% of the take if YOU pay for damages and repairs.

Don't bother getting licenses or whatnot - just keep it on the down low. If someone raises a stink with the local government, then just pull the machine. It will cost you WAY more in time, effort, and headache to get the machines licensed as amusement machines than you'll ever make on them. It would be less of a headache for everyone involved to just pull the machines out and bring them back home.

A gentleman's agreement should be enough. These things are like antiques now - no different than the vintage gumball machine sitting in our customer waiting room. You think we have that there to make money? Hell no - it's just there because it's a neat little thing to have for the kids to play with. Such is the same with a few classic cabs sitting in the laundromat.
 
I was shocked to find out a local place made on games per month.

Yeah I can't help but have a more positive outlook in spite of the comments here. The place is right by a college and caters to 'geek' clientele.. There are console games and hip reading materials.

We're in a pretty funky town (Asheville).. A new classic arcade opened here a year ago and was recently voted best bar in the city. They pack people in that place every night of the week, people lined up around the block on weekends.

Maybe I'll just haul one of my mid-grade games out there and see how it does. Though I do need to check on the license/tax sticker thing. I know the arcade bar doesn't do anything like that cause I've helped them out a lot with their games, but they may just be ignorant to the regulations..
 
If you're worried about it being worth your while, you could always rent them a few games for an agreed upon price.

These days, a place may want games more for the look/ambience rather than the actual take of quarters coming in.
 
Barcade seems to be doing fine. If those guys are here, maybe they can share some info.
 
Yeah I can't help but have a more positive outlook in spite of the comments here. The place is right by a college and caters to 'geek' clientele.. There are console games and hip reading materials.

Don't give them any of your "Babies" (IE: anything you'd be pissed to see kicked or cigarette burns in and stuff) and try it out for a few months and see how it goes. I would offer more than 1 machine but do everything on the up and up (IE register them appropriately), that way you can deduct ANY of your games parts, etc... and it may make up for the low payback and hassle of the venture. Even if it doesn't pay up front you may be able to itemize your hobbies so that might work out. Granted I'm not an accountant so you may want to talk with one about it, but it makes sense in my mind at least.
 
I was picking up a couple machines from an active op of 18 years a couple weeks ago,he said tx state law is 50/50.
 
I work for an operator in NC and the way we do things is, we split 50/50 on games and on redemption stuff we give them 33% and we keep 33%. The other 33% is to cover cost of toys etc. As far as the tax stickers go, we dont tell the tax office we have games in said location. Its kinda there job to come around and find them and charge $5.00 a year i believe for each sticker/machine and usually the owner of the location pays that. I would not put anything collectible or mint in the laundry mats because they get broke into alot. I get a service call at least every 2 weeks for service calls, because someone has tried to break in game or kids putting paper and pennies in games and jamming the coin slots up. On my routes I have some laundry mats that do 50-60.00 a month and some do 200-300.00 a month just to give you an idea.
 
Don't bother getting licenses or whatnot - just keep it on the down low. If someone raises a stink with the local government, then just pull the machine. It will cost you WAY more in time, effort, and headache to get the machines licensed as amusement machines than you'll ever make on them. It would be less of a headache for everyone involved to just pull the machines out and bring them back home.

Here, if the state catches them in operation, they 'seize' them. That is, they put a sticker on them marking them 'seized' and forbid them to be removed. You have to pay a fine AND the cost of the licensing.
 
My buddy just put a painted over NEO in his barbershop a week before x-mas. I just sent him a message asking what he thought he brought in so far, and his reply was about $40. He says it does about $1 to $1.50 a day. Of course it's a small barbershop with only 3 chairs and 8 seats for waiting customers. Don't know if that helps.
 
In NC you don't need tax stickers for each game. You may in Asheville, though, but it would be a town or county thing.

There are 2 major drawbacks to operating games, and several minor ones. All the minor ones can be forgiven, but the two major ones are :

1. wear and tear on the machines, up to and including theft of the machine if it's in an unattended location.

2. Liability issues if somebody decides to sue you. I worked for an op for several years, he got sued many times over idiotic things, and without insurance, you're out a ton of money. A woman walked into a game. She sued after she broke her hip... a kid fell off the top of a change machine, they sued. Another woman was drunk and fell into a pool table, sued us over that.

Chances are, you won't get sued. However, if anybody ever decides to, you could potentially lose your house over it. So insurance is a must in my opinion, don't trust the owner of the location to have insurance either, they may not, or it may not cover you when it gets down to brass tacks.
 
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