Ordinance and Licensing Committee forwards arcade code overhaul to council, moves to replace per-machine fees

The Ordinance and Licensing Committee voted unanimously Dec. 8 to send proposed revisions to municipal code 8.04, the city’s amusement-arcade ordinance, to the full Common Council.

Committee members acted after entrepreneur James Cernick, owner-operator of Vintage Vault Arcade in Mukwonago, described a business model that uses a single entry fee and hundreds of restored games and said Waukesha’s current permit structure — $40 per machine plus a $50 premises fee — would be prohibitive for a venue with many machines. “As it sits, the permit is $40 a machine,” Cernick said during public comment, noting that a flat annual fee in nearby Mukwonago was $250.

Staff member Brian, who drafted the proposed ordinance language, told the committee the existing code is “archaic and obsolete” in places and recommended modernizing definitions, eliminating per-machine tracking and moving to a flat fee structure to make small- and mid-size arcades commercially viable. “Our current ordinance would…