Im thinking of opening an arcade. I need advice

F_Zero45

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First off is it worth it? How's the elec bill? High I imagine. What is the cost to get a permit for each game from the comptroler? (Texas) Redemption or no redemption area? I want to focus towards older gamers and not small children. Is that a bad idea?

I'm sure more questions will come to mind.
 
If your focus is not having small children in the arcade, you will not need redemption.
 
First off is it worth it?

No.

Unless you have the capital and resources to feature tons of games, merchandise, food, liquor, etc., etc., it's pretty much assured to be a failure.

There's a reason arcades are damn-near extinct. If there was truly any money to be made in it, you'd see more of them around.

Having a deep passion for these games (and the hobby) isn't going to somehow make people want to step away from their Xbox 360's, Wii's and PS3's to go visit an arcade.

I hate it, but it is what it is. That ship has sailed a long time ago.
 
If your focus is not small children, you might benefit from serving bottled beers during certian hours. Ground Kontrol in Portland pulls this off fairly well.
 
Here's the application for license to operate an arcade or coin-operated machine (even coke or snack machines) route in Texas:

http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxforms/ap-147.pdf

Basically, if you have 50 machines or less, the license will cost you $200, 51-200 machines and the license will cost $400, etc.

Also, there is a $60 per machine per year fee that gets you the tax sticker to put on the front of the machine, and you have to pay income tax on any money made from use of the machines. This $60 per machine is prorated depending on when during the year you apply, and you have to pay it each year to get a new tax sticker.

I've heard you don't have to get the $60 sticker if you keep the games on free play and just charge a flat admission fee, but you'd have to check on that.

And the sticker has to be on them even if they are made to accept tokens, as the tokens are given in exchange for cash, so are considered "currency" in this circumstance....
 
No.

Unless you have the capital and resources to feature tons of games, merchandise, food, liquor, etc., etc., it's pretty much assured to be a failure.

There's a reason arcades are damn-near extinct. If there was truly any money to be made in it, you'd see more of them around.

Having a deep passion for these games (and the hobby) isn't going to somehow make people want to step away from their Xbox 360's, Wii's and PS3's to go visit an arcade.

I hate it, but it is what it is. That ship has sailed a long time ago.

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Somneday if i get rich i will open one just for fun...

The only way id ever see if make money would be to have 2 sections.. half old school classics and offer adult beverages for sale.(21+ unless accompanied by adult) other half newer stuff and redemption. Sell soda from soda fountian(cups of soda will cost the house a few cents a piece this way) popcorn, mini pizzas, nachosm etc etc....


thats the way id like it done and the only real way id see you making money. Another plus would to find a place thats literally right next to a BUSY tire shop, mechanics shop etc.. someplace where people would much rather mosy over to your place rather than sit in some waiting room for hours...


i actually do have a new 2 head soda fountian setup... if your interested...

popcorn- go to same club they sell the carts for like $200.. not industrial size btu i have one in my cade and its plenty enough for when we have parties and stuff....
 
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Don't bother opening an arcade. You'll be throwing your money away.


include rentals, sales, parties, service, a great location, and if you possess some business sense you can do quite well.

it also helps if you love what you do
 
If you do flat fee it's less of a hassle and all you need is your tax cert and you can also sell sodas, popcorn, chips, pre-packaged snack items and other merchandise. As long as you aren't cooking any food you don't need a serv safe certificate from the state.

It doesn't cost anything to get a tax certificate. I got one a while back so I could purchase wholesale items and I have yet to use it. I'm thinking about cancelling it as it's a bit of a hassle having to do the taxes every quarter and not actually being in business.

You should only be open at times when you know people are coming like weekends and evenings. Try to push it as an event rental location i.e. private parties. You can also do BYOB and not have to worry about acquiring a liquor license or the liability and this will also attract an older crowd. I would also have an arcade machine running a console so you can have tournaments for some of the newer fighting games. Unless you have $10K+ to drop on every new fighting game that comes out. Having tournaments on off days would help bring people in on what normally would be a slow day.
 
An arcade by itself is pretty much worthless today unless you have an untold amount of rare classics to show off, or a large selection of different games and pins.

You need a business to go along with the arcade, like laser tag, mini golf, go karts, etc. An arcade is more of a 'bonus' anymore - it isn't a stand alone business, but something to do just before or after you do something else.

Having managed several arcades - the last as recently as a year and a half ago - I can tell you that games you think are awesome the general public knows nothing about - and they tend to play one or two games. For instance - our highest 'selling' game (it was all tokens - which could be bought at a discount rate - so we go by amount of plays) was house of the dead - and our lowest was pac man. I know that sounds backwards, but other games such as Big Buck Hunter, Hydro Thunder, Cruisin USA, Target Terror, etc were all played several times more than pac man. The only people who played pac man were the occasional adults who played the arcade games, or adults with their super little kids (because it's just a joystick).
 
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No.



Having a deep passion for these games (and the hobby) isn't going to somehow make people want to step away from their Xbox 360's, Wii's and PS3's to go visit an arcade.

I hate it, but it is what it is. That ship has sailed a long time ago.

X2 I think about this all the time. Who would have ever thought that videogames would kill themselves off? Makes me sad. If technology hadn't advanced as fast as it did the arcades would have lasted a little bit longer ,maybe.

I could see you pulling this off if you did something like a Dave & Busters type deal, I agree with what the other guy just said, an arcade should only be used as filler and you need something else on location besides that to make it work Mini golf,Paintball,Go karts etc.
 
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Ironically we had a putt putt type place go up here in Grove City and it's failing because there's no good arcades! People here were hoping for a resurgence of putt putt golf and games but instead they get 2 shitty courses, a batting cage, a small party room and 2 driving games.

Owner claims he can't find classics to put in there. I said he's not looking hard enough. LOL
 
I would so much love to do something similar.

Wintertime is indoor time in my country, it's not to cold but the weather sucks ass.

There isn't much to do in my area.
I would like to open a parent and child center.
a nice cofeebar with good apple pie and healthy shakes and smoothies for the parents.
A indoor climb thing for the kids, Non violent arcade games and a mini theather that shows like Dinsey/pixar DVD's.
 
I think an arcade would work as long as you have Refreshments, Go-Karts and Miniature Golf.

Or I like the Bar idea, a place like Hot Shots with a lot more arcades. I like Dave & Busters but it would be a HUGE job running and maintaining a place that large.

I think the LOCATION would be seriously important too!!!!
 
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