This Checklist Is For You If...
You're setting up or upgrading a commercial venue—a family entertainment center, a casino floor, a trampoline park, or a fitness studio. You need to buy equipment like slot machines, board games, gaming headsets, or rowing machines, but you're not sure where to start or what pitfalls to avoid.
I've been handling orders for indoor entertainment equipment for seven years. I've personally made—and, more importantly, documented—28 significant purchasing mistakes, totaling roughly $47,000 in wasted budget. Now I maintain our team's pre-purchase checklist. Here are the five steps I run through before every single order.
(Should mention: this checklist works whether you're buying one item or outfitting an entire venue.)
Step 1: Define the Experience, Not Just the Product
Most buyers focus on the product specs—"I need an IGT slot machine" or "I want Gloomhaven." They completely miss the player experience. The question everyone asks is, "What's your best price for this model?" The question they should ask is, "What experience will this create for my customers?"
Look, I'm not saying specs don't matter. I'm saying they're secondary.
When I compared our Q1 and Q2 results side by side—same vendor, different machine placements—I finally understood why the context of the machine matters so much. An IGT Megabucks jackpot winner machine in a quiet corner generates way less excitement than the same machine near the main walkway, where people can see the progressive jackpot meter climbing.
Your checklist here:
- Who is the target user? (High rollers? Casual gamers? Families?)
- What's the intended vibe? (High-energy? Relaxed? Competitive?)
- Does this product fit that vibe, or are you forcing a square peg into a round hole?
Step 2: Test the Audio Before You Commit
From the outside, a gaming headset with mic is a gaming headset with mic. The reality is, the audio quality, comfort, and build vary so wildly that you can't just spec it out on paper. The same goes for speakers in a slot machine or the sound design in a fitness class.
People assume the cheapest option is fine for a noisy environment. What they don't see is how cheap speakers fail: distortion at high volume, tinny audio, and components that die after 200 hours of play.
In my first year (2017), I made the classic audio mistake: I ordered 50 gaming headsets for our esports lounge without testing them. Looked fine on the spec sheet. Cost me $2,400. Within three months, 12 had audio issues. We had to replace them.
Your checklist here:
- Request a demo unit. Test it in your actual space.
- Check for ambient noise isolation.
- Ask about warranty and replacement policy for commercial use.
Step 3: Play a Round—Don't Just Read the Rulebook
This sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people buy board games (like Gloomhaven) based on reviews alone. Gloomhaven is a fantastic game, but it's also a massive investment in table space and player time. If your venue caters to drop-in customers who have 30 minutes, Gloomhaven is a bad fit, regardless of its BGG rating.
Saved $150 by buying a "like new" copy of a popular board game. Ended up spending $400 on a replacement when the first one was missing critical pieces. The penny-wise, pound-foolish lesson applies even to small purchases.
Your checklist here:
- Play the game (or have your staff play it). Time the average play session.
- Check for component durability. Card sleeves may be necessary.
- Consider setup and teardown time.
Step 4: Don't Forget the Fitness Equipment (Really)
How to choose the best rowing machine for your venue? Most buyers focus on price and brand and completely miss maintenance requirements, floor space, and user skill level. The question everyone asks is, "How many watts?" The question they should ask is, "Who is going to fix it when a user jams the chain?"
The 'budget rower' choice looked smart until the bearing failed after 3 months. The total cost: $450 for the replacement part plus a week of downtime. Net loss: way more than the 'premium' model would have cost upfront. I should add that the downtime also annoyed customers who came specifically for rowing classes.
Your checklist here:
- Verify the unit is rated for commercial use, not home use.
- Check the availability of replacement parts (IGT's parts network is helpful here).
- Measure the footprint. Add 3 feet behind the rower for safety.
- Test the resistance mechanism (air, magnetic, or water).
Step 5: Trust the System, But Verify It
I once ordered 15 pieces of equipment—slot machines, trampoline foam, and board games—all based on what the IGT Advantage Casino Management System said was "in stock." Checked it myself, approved it, processed it. We caught the error when the shipment arrived: two machines were the wrong model, the foam was the wrong density, and one game was missing entirely.
$3,200 waste. Credibility damaged with our client. Lesson learned: the system is a guide, not a guarantee. Always double-check inventory against a physical count for high-value items.
Your checklist here:
- Cross-reference inventory systems with a physical check (or a call to your rep).
- Confirm shipping timelines and carriers.
- Document every step of the order. A simple spreadsheet is fine.
Final Tips & Common Mistakes
- Don't assume 'standard' means the same thing to every vendor. A "standard" gaming headset might mean stereo to one vendor and 5.1 surround to another.
- Small orders matter. When I was starting out, the vendors who treated my $200 orders seriously are the ones I still use for $20,000 orders. Small doesn't mean unimportant—it means potential.
- No machine is 'risk-free' for operators. Understand the revenue share models, the payout percentages, and the maintenance costs before signing anything.
- Always order a spare part. For slot machines, that might be a power supply. For rowing machines, a seat roller kit. For board games, a deck of sleeves. The cost of the spare is trivial compared to the cost of downtime.