The current half-open situation in the Italian arcades business, is explained by distributor Mauro Zaccaria, who told InterGame this week that the many arcades in the Italian coastal resorts are family-owned.
“That means that they don’t pay rents and can also afford to open, even if the number of tourists – and therefore customers – is reduced.”
On the other hand, the big family entertainment centres, owned by chains, are not tending to open so readily.
“They don’t think that they can reach an income level (with social-distancing and capacity limits) that will make it possible to pay all of the costs, such as rents and wages. Many of them prefer to keep their venues closed right now, so their rental costs are suspended and the employees get a substantial proportion of their wages paid by the government.”
The industry has its fingers crossed that the rise in infections in Italy in the past few weeks will not result in their venues being closed again.
