mooching part 4

This is in another thread.

When I went through covid closings. I wasn't worried about lost profits. I was hoping to pay business bills until I reopened.

I ate a lot of cheap food during that time.

You gotta do what you gotta do.

LTG : )

Ha gotta love it. The balls on this kid can’t be constrained by dirty sweatpants.

Remember when he was bragging (post Covid of course) about raking in tens of thousands of dollars a month?

Hey he must be doing something right. Gameseum running strong for like 4 years now, when we all predicted failure.

Digital panhandling at its finest WTF; why aren't GFM posts more moderated. There are people out there with genuine issues that truly need the money for REAL reasons SMH.

if only he had a lot of valuable assets he could sell off...

Sorry what's going on here? IS this Otaku?

Yeparooni!

The number of people running gofundme's wanting people to buy them a pinball machine is amazing.

LTG : )

Can’t believe only 3 of 10’s of thousand loyal customers have donated to his latest GoFundMe.

Before I clicked on this thread I was expecting it to be about the Gusher for $5,000

Boohoo, 6 months.
My arcade was closed OVER A YEAR.
Thanks New York State! 13 months of paying rent and utilities on a space we legally couldn’t use.

Claiming possible profits as “losses” is a bit ridiculous. Obviously everyone lost out, but saying they LOST 70k is disingenuous.

We returned, we were frugal, and
we opened several new locations. It hasn’t been easy, we’re still paying off those brutal debts, but we are on the right track!
Either Steven is being greedy, or he has been telling exaggerations or lies and the “rich-relative” money tap has been turned off.

I think he’s running out of bridges to burn.

Over 50 years, if I add up all my "profit losses". Cycles of the business, up and down every seven years. Coin op down turn around 1995-96. Williams closing. 2005 recession. 2006-07 no smoking. Two covid closings around 6 months. My profit losses would likely be well over a million.

I better start a gofund me and avoid the rush.

LTG : )

I see that Steven’s writing has not improved.

People are starting to wise up, hopefully!

Lloyd, One of these days I want to go out of my way just to find my way to Minneapolis and spend money at your business like it’s going out of style

If you ever do. Please let me know in advance so we can make your trip special.

LTG : )

"Thankfully we were one of the very few arcades to make it through COVID-19, but the fight is not over. "

I think a few other arcades made it through. I was at 3 over the past 4 days. Glad they are still around, and happy to pay the price of admission. None of them is mooching on-line though.

I've lost track of the excuses this gonif has used to try and mooch money off people.

don't forget .....paypal gets 10% of the money lol ,thats why they could care less who begs for money

The grift that keeps on grifting.

Any truth to the rumor that to raise money he's auctioning off a broken escalera?

but still being required to pay our full amount of thousands of bills each month (roughly $5,000 under these circumstances), we kept Gameseum alive by wiping out our savings.

It does beg the question, why have there been continual fundraisers since this kid was a teenager but only just now he's tapping in to his "savings"?

I'm starting to think he's not entirely trustworthy.

Here's a classic Otaku comment:

07/17/2020: "I have tens of thousands of people waiting to come back, and our heavy social media presence has not waned."

Should have been plenty of cashflow from them once they re-opened....

That would make it the most successful arcade ever.

LTG : )

What's the back story here? Haven't a bunch of arcades done this? I remember jackbar for one and when I asked if they got PPP money, they just ignored the question.

Like I mentioned, brag and beg. Looks like his 30k+ customers are tight asses as only 3 have donated for a grand total of $140.

FB30A850-5D3F-437F-81A4-C7BEB3AA01A2 (resized).jpeg

Sort of. Many arcades and similar businesses asked for support during lockdown.
Some also sold off games to pay the bills.
Not aware of any others currently asking for make-up money.

He's up to a massive $140 pledged.

He may have upset a lot of people. Begging for money for his sump pump in his parent house where his EMs were. Borrowing and breaking beelzeboob Escalera. And probably a lot of other interesting things.

LTG : )

Using the sump pump donations for the Team One machine kinda got the ball really rolling.

Any pinball guy knows you always keep back up sump pumps just in case. I’ve got 3 total at all times. 2 on duty and one in the box on standby.

Next thing you know, the leather seats in his private plane are going to start cracking.

Crap that reminds me, I need to get a backup. I have a huge ass battery and an inverter but no backup! And all the games are right near the pit!

Hey, you guys wouldn’t want to chip in, would you…

I'd love to help. I'm sorry I can't. I need to get a frontup small butt outverter for back up when they make PTCR.

LTG : )

Aah yes Punchy the Clown!

Ha. Classic scene along with the cat juggling gambling hall in South America.

I'll preface this by writing that I am not fond of private businesses asking for handouts or charity. Also, I don't know this person and am unfamiliar with their business. Also, I don't want to divert this into a political discussion or discourse.

But, being a fellow Pennsylvanian, I can say that the State of Pennsylvania was extraordinarily draconian with their restrictions on businesses during the pandemic. And, they held onto their policies longer than many states. I'm shocked at the number of businesses able to still survive the policies of the pandemic here in PA.

I'm all for letting capitalism run its course and for having businesses flush-out if they can't economically keep afloat. But some, small businesses especially, have been unfairly crushed by the Covid policy of the last 2-3 years of the current governor. It is especially tragic that many other people sat home in their pajamas doing nothing, still collecting money from the government for months, while countless business owners struggled to keep their doors open.

I lived my entire life in California until two years into covid. I get it... But I'm still bothered by these locations asking for free money, especially when some of them got PPP and other support. I think I'm especially bitter about it all because I never missed a day of work through the entire thing and had all normal raises and bonuses suspended "due to the pandemic," so I'm much worse off for it all without getting to even take time off.

You nailed it..then the person who pushed much of this is now the Govenor. I've been to this arcade and it's a cool place to visit. Many arcade games many have recapped monitors and new controlls.
Assuming this guy has a stock of games he can move in, selling some of the big $ games is a good way to raise cash. For the sake of saving a decent place to visit, i hope it works out.
Ill visit next time Im near.

The owner has a long history of asking for money and not being honest (I am thinking this is at least his third or fourth GoFundMe). Burnt many bridges here (he never did anything personally to me, but he did not impress me at all from his behavior on here). I am not the best to summarize everything, but here is the old locked thread where a lot of the drama occurred.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/gameseum-gaming-gala-sept-15

I'm familiar with the history. I believe it should not completely eclipse the fact he is running a pubic arcade with over 125 games. Its been open for a few years now and had the misfortune of being forced to close..PA was right behind CA and NY.

That is not a fact. Pinball Gallery hasn't managed to pack that many games into their building, which has 50% more square footage and is pretty damn full. His numbers have always been greatly inflated. The Gallery was also affected by the exact same restrictions but never asked for a dime they didn't earn.

I am intrigued by the pubic part though. Ever since the rub & tug next door closed...

If he has a sustainable business model, I would think he should be able to get a business loan to help him get through these tough times.

He's also made many posts on Facebook over the last year or two of new games he has bought. Where was he getting the money to afford and buy those games if the shutdown effected him that greatly? I think using the pandemic to try and mooch more money now is just an excuse...

He is probably counting the cartridges from his gaming consoles.

Did he go out of business?
The Google business listing for the Gameseum currently lists it as “permanently closed.”

1AD4B41F-4E0E-45B4-A127-35F8CAC22480 (resized).png

Their website is down too. He posted a few weeks ago that they were going to close temporarily because they had the flu. Someone told them that Google has them listed as permanently closed and Steven never responded back.

He’s probably busy buying a sump pump

Reminds me of this