Recently, we asked the arcade workers of the BuzzFeed Community to share their ✨secrets and stories✨ from on the job with us. Here's what they said.
1. "Many used diapers were left between and/or behind arcade games...even though we had diaper changing stations in both restrooms."
2. "A friend of mine used to work at Aladdin's Castle. They had one machine that would give out tickets as prizes, but it was constantly breaking. They would post 'out of order' signs all over it and even put duct tape over the coin slots, but people would literally peel off the tape, pop in their tokens, then come up and complain that it didn't work and say they wanted their tokens back."
3. "My brother was a general manager at Dave & Buster's and opened new arcades around the country. One thing he mentioned often were the gang confrontations and violence that would suddenly erupt in the arcade. I guess gang members like a good air hockey match too..."
4. "The grossest thing I've found in the ball pit was a used condom."
5. "I worked at Dave & Buster's for a little while in college. I was constantly surprised by how much money grown-ass men and women would throw down for the arcade. Especially adults without kids. Sure, families would throw down $200–$300 for their family of 4 or 5 easy enough. But I had a dude, couldn't be older than 35, who, over the course of a night, dropped almost a grand on the D&B token cards in the arcade."
6. "The amount of people who try and steal the laser gun vests is astounding."
7. "There were many random dropped turds in black-light mini golf."
8. "The holes where you put your fingers in the bowling ball? Yeah, they never get sanitized. Don't put your fingers in them and then eat food unless you want to contract a disease."
—Anonymous
9. "I worked at a small arcade during college. People would always complain about the prices. I wanted to tell them that no one is making you play arcade games. Some grown adults would genuinely be addicted to playing the games. Some would come play arcade games for six hours straight. They would play the same game for hours!"
—Anonymous
10. "At a birthday party, the birthday kid frisbee'd their whole pizza pie on the floor. We offered to comp the one pizza, but the parents wanted the WHOLE party package comped. Um, it was their child’s fault the pizza was on the floor."
11. "Tons of diapers slipped off while in the ball pit."
12. "My sister worked at a local arcade. She said that kids would poop and vomit in the ball pit on a daily basis. If it was particularly bad, her manager would have the team hose down the balls, but not disinfect them."
13. "When my sister worked at an arcade, she avoided wearing the mascot costume at all costs because it was sweaty, smelly, and hadn't been cleaned in years!"
14. "You wouldn’t believe the amount of people who throw up on the floor or arcade games who won’t say a word."
15. "I was a manager at an arcade for a number of years. Firstly, the playgrounds are extremely unhygienic. The ball pit balls get cleaned maybe once a month if you're lucky and mostly people were too lazy to sanitize the playground each night."
—Anonymous
16. And lastly, "At the arcade where I worked, we had a birthday party where the kids ran through the ball pit and emerged with sh*t all over their socks."
Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.