Why Dave & Buster’s Is Transforming Its Arcades Into Casinos

Somewhere out there, a Skee-Ball shark lies in wait to lighten your wallet. A Dance Dance Revolution hustler plots your downfall. A bumper-pool savant, a budding Tom Cruise in his own version of The Color of Money, prepares to barnstorm through pool halls, raking in cash from hapless opponents. These fantasies and more will soon be alive at your local Dave & Buster’s, the $2 billion eatertainment chain that recently announced plans to let patrons place real-money bets on the company’s main attraction: its arcade games.

The suburban gaming den’s new betting operation is part of a partnership with Lucra Sports, a technology company that describes its product as “gamification services.” In practical terms, Lucra licenses its software to other businesses, allowing them to integrate certain kinds of betting into their existing apps and websites. Lucra deals in the kinds of bookie-free “peer to peer” bets—say, on the results of a night of bowling or a game of pickup basketball—that might have previously been sealed with a handshake.