I’m curious to find out what kind of licensing is needed to put arcade games on location in the area’s that you guys live in.
I recently found a game that was in good shape, most likely needs a power supply to get it working and cheap enough that I thought maybe I could put in on location and it could possibly be the start of a small business. You know buy one game let it earn some money then use the money to buy a second game and let it earn some money, and then a third game and then a forth, and so on, until I had enough to possibly open a classic arcade. A buddy of mine and I have been tossing the idea around for a while. However we ran into a small problem. The city that I live in requires a license to operate arcade games. The license is $750 to operate the games, plus $250 to distribute the games, plus a $59 business license registration, all of which have to be renewed annually. The last time I checked that’s a whole lot of games at $0.25 each to pay for all that. I’ve also found that most of the local cities around me are similar, except one that is $75 for the license, plus $50 per game added to the license, up to 4 games and then you need another license. For all of the cities you have to list who owns the establishment, who owns the game, the address where the game will be operated and provide a drawing of the building where the game will be located inside the building, plus some of the cities require an electrical permit be pulled and then the game must be inspected by the electrical inspector. And if I move a game, replace a game, add a game, remove a game I have to notify them immediately. And they fine you fairly heavily if you don't follow the rules on this stuff. None of this includes setting up an actual business license with the State or getting a tax I.D. number or insurance (which some of the cities require prove of insurance too). Seems like my local governments are set up for people with lots of money to start a business and not the little guy trying to start something on a shoe string budget. Anyone of you running into stuff like this? I’d love to know what John and Jay (it is Jay isn’t it?) are doing to set up those game in the three bars that they’ve put them in?
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