dauber Wrote: So something I've noticed... I live in Chicago, and we don't have any true arcades. We have several "barcades" / "beercades," and in the case of Logan Hardware (which actually does have its own beercade), it's a record store with an "arcade museum." The dedicated arcades are in the suburbs. I believe the place in Las Vegas is called an "arcade museum." Denver has "1 Up," which is a beercade. I believe that's the only place there to play video games. San Francisco has no arcades. Toronto has no arcades...and neither does New York City -- just a "beercade" or two, while I can name at least three arcades in nearby suburban New Jersey. Just wondering why that is...is there something about how arcades are taxed because of "gaming" regulations or something, so they incorporate that into something else? Or why some are billed as "arcade museums"?

You are right, barcades seem to be the way of the future but there are some traditional arcades hanging on.
San Francisco has two premier places with arcade games in them.  One of them is on Fisherman's Wharf and it's called Musee Mechanique.  The other is in the community of Alameda called High Scores Interactive. 

New York City has Chinatown Fair and there's two great places to play pinball in downtown NYC.  One is a skateboard shop the other is a dedicated pinball store that charges admission to play, but there's a loyalty program where a portion of that admission fee goes toward a discount on buying a pinball machine of your own.

The data I have on Toronto is way out of date, but there should be an arcade museum of sorts there.

I can tell you exactly why arcades are hard to come by in San Francisco and this may hold true in other towns.  There's an obsolete local law in place that prohibits any machines that requires the insertion of a coin because the law treats it as a gambling device.  To get around this, the store charges an admission fee and sets all the machines to freeplay.  As for arcades in major cities, another reason may be the amount of revenue these places generate versus the expenses required to stay open.  Rent is way more expensive in town versus out in the suburbs.  Beercades can survive because they make 20 times more money on one drink versus a patron playing one game.  Timeline Arcade in Pennsylvania has been in the news in the past year regarding the amusement taxes they have to pay on their revenues.
It is what it is.  Keep me posted of any arcade changes at locations near you!