Dave & Buster’s to allow customers to bet on arcade games

Dallas-based arcade and sports bar giant Dave & Buster’s is giving customers over the age of 18 the opportunity to win and lose real money.

Through a partnership with peer-to-peer gambling software platform Lucra Sports, Dave & Buster’s loyalty members will be able to place bets through a mobile app on popular arcade games like Hot Shot Basketball and Skee-Ball. The feature is expected to launch in a few months and will be available in all 223 Dave & Buster’s locations.

Dave & Buster’s has some 5 million loyalty members and about 30 million visitors to its hybrid bar and arcade every year. It’s the first step to giving customers the opportunity to place bets, said Simon Murray, Dave and Buster’s senior vice president of entertainment and attractions.

“We’re thrilled to work with Lucra to bring this exciting new gaming platform to our customers,” he said in a statement. “This new partnership gives our loyalty members real-time, unrivaled gaming experiences, and reinforces our commitment to continuing to elevate our customer experience through innovative, cutting-edge technology.”

Dave & Buster’s and Lucra Sports did not respond to an interview request from The Dallas Morning News.

Lucra’s introduction into Dave & Buster’s is a sign of the ballooning gambling and sports betting industry, which could one day see Americans spend more than $45 billion per year, according to Goldman Sachs. Though many forms of gambling are still illegal in the Lone Star State, The Texas Sports Betting Alliance estimates that Texans already illegally gamble $8 billion annually.

It’s unclear how or if the feature will work in Texas as Lucra’s recreational gaming product is available in only 43 states, according to its website. But its app casts a wide net and has been downloaded by users more than 150,000 times.

Dave & Buster’s will be using Lucra’s software to implement gambling into its app.

But with Dave & Buster’s reputation as a family-friendly establishment, implementing responsible gambling rules will be critical to the feature’s success. The company plans to place a limit on the size of bets, but the exact number is still unconfirmed, according to CNBC. The average bet placed on Lucra’s platforms is $10.

Lucra, founded in 2019 by Stanford graduates Dylan Robbins and Michael Madding, has seen its platform explode in popularity. Its user base features 50,000 active players who have placed more than a million unique wagers.

It’s also caught the eyes of big name investors like Major League Pickleball founder Steve Kuhn, NBA player Khris Middleton, former SMU Mustang Emmanuel Sanders, Washington Commanders tight end Zach Ertz and former professional soccer player Julie Ertz.

However, Lucra does not describe itself as a betting platform and excluded words like “bet” and “wager” from its announcement. Though the feature sounds similar because bets will be placed on games of skill and not chance, the platform argues that it is not under the same scrutiny that larger-scale gambling operations face.

Lucra was named on business magazine Fast Company’s list of World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2024.