20 machines is probably much more than you need to start with, especially if you have little/no competition. 10 is a pretty good number...it's more than "just a few", gives you a good variety, and is enough to run a weekly league. I have 10 at my location...and we play half of them one week for league, and half the next week. I thought people would get bored of this, so I would hold league nights in other locations to mix it up, but would always get lower attendance when I did that. So, in my experience, 10 is enough for a league.

If the competition is limited, I'm not sure than 20 pins that much more of a draw than 10 (coming from my perspective as a player).

If your machines are so busy that people are waiting a lot, then you can expand with more.

But, I agree with everyone else...the money is in the alcohol. Even just a 5 seat bar with limited selection would at least double your revenue. Many of my regulars would not be regulars if they couldn't buy alcohol there as well.

Unless they are giving you some crazy deal, renting space might not be the best way to go. I've heard other people who do this a at a friend's place will often just get 100% split of the machines. It's still a good deal for the bar if you're doing leagues and tournaments, because they make much easier money from the alcohol sales.

If you don't end up getting 100%, push for 75/25. Pins are the hardest way to earn quarters (compared to everything else: skeeball, pool tables, foosball, air hockey, video games, jukeboxes, redemption games...) by far, and require much more maintenance, care, and are really expensive upfront. 50/50 split seemed more fair back in the day when arcades were packed to the brim.

People say this all the time, but a reasonable partner does not expect you to come fix a game at midnight. You can get to it tomorrow, or even the next day if you're out of town for the weekend.

I absolutely didn't miss the point. Every time a newbie asks about opening an arcade, people come in to scare them with the "what happens when you get a call at midnight demanding you fix a pinball machine".

I operate 15 machines, and I'm doing fixes and repairs 2 or 3 times a week (sometimes more). I do them as fast as I (reasonably) can, but you don't need to be able to drop whatever you are doing at any moment (day or night) to have a reputation for great playing pins, and outstanding service.

I've operated machines for 5 different clients now, and not one of them has had this day or night expectation. Neither have my regular players. Although it's a lot of time, it's not that hard to come in and provide a better overall playing experience than what most people have come to expect from location pins over the last 20 years.

If your games are working and playing great most of the time, people will cut you a little slack if something is down and you have to wait a few days to order new parts, for example.