late to this party. Freind opened an Arcade in a small Midwestern town (pop 23,000) aprox 4 years ago. Post Office got a new building and he got great rent on the old Post Office. Great location, great parking, etc. Even got City to cut him a deal as it was a YOUTH activity. it actually went over very well, lots of business. Finacially it worked out great. But the one thing nobody saw comming (but should have) was the clients. Kids nowdays cant cunduct themsleves around others there age group. They simply could not act like normal people. there where fights non stop, smoking in a non smokeing building, machines where abused consistantly. he had kids breaking Plexi on the front of machines for "fun". I personally watched a male try and break a joystick, he was actually totally supported buy it, both feet on front of cab yanking. the first thing that was tried was a rules list. If you where breaking any rules, you where out. Great idea.... he had a single person there at all times, change, and a small ara with some tables and vending machines and hot dog makler and a pizza oven. When started he had a 22 year old girl, lets just say nobody listened to her, we where there to observe how well the kids acted. No fualt of the 22 year old girls she was fine, its just kids dont listen. We then tried haveing an adualt Male (34 i beileve) and big (yes he purposly picked a big guy), this worked sorta, they listend a tiny bit better, and he removed a grand total of 2 male boys.. BOY DID THAT BACKFIRE.. the kids where cronic troublemakers (on video even) in the arcade. Both where removed by physicly removeing them as they wouldnt leave when asked. niether where harmed in any way ( was specific about that with guy who removed them). Parents of said children where Up in arms, local police came and viewed tapes, city council had meeting, etc.. We where told we where correct, nothing done wrong. 2 boys whre told they could not enter the place by police. Guess what, in arcade less then 2 days later (nobody watchs door, sorry its not a prison. Police where simply called and both boys removed. Well after doing this 5-6 times in a few weeks the police where getting pretty bored with the whole deal (um, my question, charge them with something maybe? but they didnt do anything but remove them). So about this time it was turning into "arcade is to much trouble" for the police and city. Mostly becuase of 2 boys. Dont get me wrong, about 25% of them i wouldnt let near me or anybody else if i had any say. so instead of actually dealing with Kids who cant follow rules (isnt that the Police's job?) the city just Changed his rent (it was raised almost 400%). My friend ( i had helped him with some of the setup and so on) decided it was just far more BS then it was worth.
My friend is not a games person, he was looking for a legit way to make a small dime ( he idd have other jobs, this was an attempt at somthing new, he didnt think it was going to make him rich, just maybe make hims some coin. he also had some thouhgt it would be something for the kids.
So it seems, at least around here, Arcades as i remeber them are not possible..
sorry for the long story. its a bit negative, I do not think it would be the case everywhere, but maybe my age has made me a bit jaded.. Kids nowdays seems to really not give a crap out anybody but htemsleves (some of them at least)..