Summary
The arcade manager is responsible for all the operations of an amusement arcade store. His job is to oversee, manage and maintain mechanical machines, arcade machines and amusement booths. An arcade manager is also responsible for the store’s revenues, customer complaints and issues, order and peace inside the store and reports any untoward incidents or criminal activities in the store.
Duties
The arcade manager is responsible for assisting customers of an arcade facility and performing minor repairs on various machines. Throughout his/her shift, the arcade manager explains game operation or rules to customers, exchanges real money into game tokens or coins, and responds to patron complaints of machine malfunction. When a machine stops working, the arcade manager opens the coin slot mechanism of machines with special keys and analyzes the mechanism to find the root of the problem, such as slugs, bent coins or other foreign objects. The arcade manager disengages the offending materials, locks the mechanism again, tests the machine by inserting coins or tokens, informs customers of defective machines and returns tokens or coins inserted by customers back to them. He then calls or notifies the maintenance department or the service people of the arcade machine and records time of machine malfunctions. The arcade manager may also assist maintenance workers or the service persons on repairs of the machine. He keeps records of the time and activities of the workers or service persons. He observes customers and keeps peace and order inside the facility or store. The arcade manager asks disruptive persons to leave and calls security or the police if troublemakers refuse to leave the store.
Education and Training Requirements
To become an arcade manager, one must possess a high school diploma plus 3 to 5 years related experience is sometimes required to be an arcade manager. The employer usually provides on-the-job training.
Knowledge and Skills Requirements
Good communication skills, manual dexterity, a pleasant personality, patience are all assets required to be an effective arcade manager.
Working Conditions
The job is in a crowded and noisy environment. The arcade manager works a regular 40-hour workweek schedule. The job may be physically and emotionally demanding because most of the customers would be in their teens and usually rowdy, loud and irreverent. The job entails standing for long hours and physical activities like stooping, squatting and kneeling.
Salary
An arcade manager makes $32,000 annually on average. Factors such as size of company, location, nature of the industry, benefits and experience may cause salaries to vary considerably among arcade managers.
