Here’s the Ticket!
Since 1959 companies like Dave & Busters have been prohibited from operating in New Jersey because they would be required to obtain both a liquor license and a state amusement game license. New Jersey is currently the only state to have such a ban. The new bill says that both licenses can be permitted and co-mingled if the facility is at least 20,000 sq. ft. and has at least 100 amusement games. Dave & Busters spoke in favor of the bill while Edward McGlynn of the New Jersey Amusement Association (NJAA) that represents the shore arcades spoke in opposition stating that such a change to the law must be done through a state constitutional amendment. The NJAA also lobbied for the 20,000 sq. ft. and 100 games minimum requirements.
What this could mean? Amusement games in New Jersey were ruled illegal in 1957 and were legalized in a 1959 state referendum that paved the way to an amendment to the state constitution. All redemption games and merchandise dispensing games were defined as ‘games of chance’. In all of my research over the past 40 years, I thought that it would take a referendum to open up New Jersey for amusement skill games but the legislature is making changes in small steps and it appears that is the new reality. Should this bill become law, it is a coup for large companies like Dave & Busters because of the 100 game minimum, not too bad for the shore arcade operators, but not good for the smaller and medium-sized general FEC industry. Note that the new Florida amusement game law did not change the 50 game minimum in order to have redemption games.
Perhaps change is best when taken in small steps. By this I mean that having a dozen large facilities in New Jersey over the next few years will most likely lead to future challenges to reduce the minimum 100 game requirement and 20,000 sq. ft. size. We must all realize, that for our industry to survive, the game manufacturers will need to sell their products on a much larger scale than to just the largest FEC’s. Once again we see that the small and medium sized FEC owners/operators are not very well represented (at least not in New Jersey and Florida) and their future is being dictated by other categories of the industry.
