Don’t bother bringing a handful of quarters to an arcade in Queens that has become popular with adults looking to score luxury goods – like Hèrmes bags and Chanel wallets.
Gatcha – a 9,000-square-foot gamers paradise in Flushing – charges $50 for one pull of the claw machine for a chance to take home a $3,600 Hèrmes Picotin bag, $600 Chanel wallet or $549 Apple AirPods Max, according to The Wall Street Journal.
One lucky customer managed to snag the prized purse handbag after 12 tries, laying out just $600, Gatcha owner Jason Lian said.
Along with the high price tag, Hèrmes bags are notoriously difficult to buy since they are sold in limited quantities and typically out-of-stock at boutiques.
Lian estimated that 80% of his “patrons are over 14 and spend $40 to $55 on average.
Inspired by similar East Asian businesses, arcades geared toward so-called “kidadults” has boomed with Millenials and Gen Zers in the US, according to the Journal.
Each US state has its own special rules for regulating arcade games, but a well-known secret across the industry is that machine operators can often program the games to make them more difficult to win, according to the Journal.
Machine operators can also rig the games so they dish out a win after a set number of plays, the report said.
Navid Jannati owns a 1,600-square-foot Gacha Claw arcade in Las Vegas. The similar arcade names are likely references to Japanese gachapon machines, small toy vending machines that take coins and spit out random prizes.
Jannati told the Journal he personally tests each arcade machine about 100 times to ensure it takes between four and seven plays for a win – the exact amount that will keep the machine profitable.
“We have the most aggressive odds in Vegas,” Jannati told the Journal.
He estimated that 70% of his customers are adults.
For the Las Vegas arcade, Jannati sources valuable anime figurines that retail for up to $80 each, or $13 wholesale on average. It takes about 12 tries at the machine for $2 a pop before a player wins a toy – so the arcade makes a profit of $11 per figurine.
The arcade earns between $7,000 and $10,000 each month in profit from its 20 machines, Jannati told the Journal.
Carson Scheer, a 25-year-old from Detroit who spends up to 20 hours a week at the arcade, claimed the flashier machines are more likely to be rigged.
“You kind of have to pick your poison when you’re playing them,” he told the Journal.
Jonathan Ascencio, a 23-year-old content creator from San Antonio, said it’s all about personal strategy.
His credentials? The frequent arcade customer has won more than 1,000 prizes from arcade games – including a pair of AirPods from a machine that cost just $11 to play.
He told the Journal his strategies include targeting machines where the prizes are spread out, swinging the claw to knock prizes into better positions and toppling over stacked items.