It appears as if some changes are coming to the arcades at Walt Disney World, and some are blaming it on Florida’s ban on Internet cafes. The changes will include taking claw machines and prize redemption centers out of resort arcades and even closing the big Tomorrowland Arcade next to Space Mountain.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, the Tomorrowland Arcade is set to close on Feb. 8, 2015, to make way for a larger gift shop outside of Space Mountain. Now, some sources of mine that work in that area are not aware of this happening yet and Disney has not yet announced it either.
Disney has said that they will be shutting down claw machines and ticket redemption counters, but wouldn’t acknowledge why. It is believed that the Florida 2013 legislation banning Internet cafes is the reason. Chuck E. Cheese’s and Dave & Buster’s have already been sued for reportedly violating the law.
Per the Sentinel:
“I’m sure Disney’s the last place in the world that wants to get accused of operating a gambling house,” said Michael Wolf, an attorney representing the Florida Arcade and Bingo Association.
The law spells out that people can’t win more than 75 cents’ worth of prizes for each game played, and that the games have to be operated by coins. Like many other family entertainment centers, Disney’s arcades are activated by cards. With each game they play, people can accumulate credits on the cards that can be exchanged for things such as Hello Kitty plush toys, Disney princess purses and mini-air-hockey games.
James Harhi, whose company JFH Technologies fills and maintains arcade games at the resort, said Disney told him “it’s in their best interest to close these,” because it fears legislation could be interpreted as outlawing the video games with prizes.
Harhi said that because Disney is removing so many machines that dispense prizes, he is laying off several of his company’s employees, who make $15 to $17 an hour. Two have already been let go, he said, and he will probably have to lay off two or three more.
Disney is not laying off any of its own workers. A union representative said 22 employees who staff the counters are being put in other positions in mid-February.
Already, the Note’able Games arcade at Disney’s All-Star Music Resort has gotten rid of its redemption counter. Disney still has the prize counters in five other hotels, including the Contemporary, All-Star Sports, All-Star Movies, Pop Century and Art of Animation.
The Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland Arcade is closing Feb. 8, and games from there will be going into the hotel arcades to replace the ones that issue prizes for points.
The impending removal of prizes “kind of stinks,” said Johannah Palasky of Philadelphia, whose 8-year-old son, Connell, played in the Contemporary’s Game Station last week.
The Contemporary’s Game Station offers dozens of electronic games, including Pac-Man, Frogger and Monopoly, and many of them issue electronic “tickets” for prizes. The more tickets you get, the better the gifts.
Connell wanted to save up points on his card for one of the bigger rewards.
“My son loves it,” Johanna Palasky said. He wins “average arcade stuff, but they’re happy to get anything.”
State Sen. Kelli Stargel, a Lakeland Republican, filed legislation last week that would loosen restrictions on family entertainment centers, including allowing machines to be operated by cards, not just coins, and increasing the allowed value of prizes. Stargel tried passing similar legislation last year, but it did not make it through the Legislature.
Stargel, whose district includes Disney World, said Disney’s lobbyists had not spoken with her about the issue. Stargel said she had spoken with other businesses, including one in her district, along with Chuck E. Cheese and Dave & Buster’s. Those chains still offer prizes.
Mike Abecassis, who owns several family entertainment centers called GameTime in Florida, said he hopes Disney might wait to remove the machines in hopes the legislation will pass.
“We’d prefer for them to not take that away,” he said. “It just makes our business less relevant in the state.”
The 2013 ban on Internet cafes came in the wake of a multistate probe into Allied Veterans of the World, an operator that billed itself as a charitable organization for veterans but which gave only about 2 percent of its profits to veterans groups.
The legislation also limited arcades that catered to senior citizens and offered low-stakes bets and paid off in things such as Publix gift cards. Many of those “senior arcades” — represented by the Florida Arcade and Bingo Association — ended up closing.
Wolf, the arcade and bingo association’s attorney, has subsequently filed lawsuits against places such as Dave & Buster’s. Those are on hold pending the results of a related federal lawsuit, he said.
“For the Legislature to think gambling for kids is OK but not for adults was pretty hypocritical,” he said. “That was essentially what we were setting out to show.”
Shortly after the law passed, the arcade association also sent an investigator to check out Disney’s hotel arcades. The investigator, Carlos De Varona, made a complaint to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office about the games. A report said the Sheriff’s Office contacted the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation, which said there were no gaming-law violations. Suing Disney, said arcade association President Gale Fontaine, would have been “like trying to go after Goliath.”
Still, Disney is likely showing “an abundance of caution” by getting rid of games for prizes, said David Ramba, a lobbyist who used to represent the arcade association.
“If I was their lobbyist, I would have told them to get rid of the machines too,” Ramba said.
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