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Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill Monday clearing the way for adult arcade Dave & Buster's to open in New Jersey. (Andy Mills | The Star-Ledger)
TRENTON -- With Gov. Chris Christie's signature on a bill peeling back a 56-year ban on alcohol being sold at establishments that house amusement games, Dave & Buster's can begin its march into New Jersey.
Dave & Buster's, the sports bar and arcade chain, wants to open a handful of locations in New Jersey but ran up against the unique half-century-old law. Gov. Chris Christie on Monday signed a new law carving out an exception for Dave & Buster's.
The exception to the ban allows businesses that hold liquor licenses to also hold amusement game license if they're at least 20,000 square feet and operate more than 100 amusement games.
The ban does not apply to casino and video games, but amusement games like skee-ball, in which players win a prize or tickets to redeem for a prize.
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The Senate voted 27-6 and the Assembly voted 71-5 in favor of the bill.
"The only thing that was standing between a multi-million dollar job creator like Dave & Buster's -- which is interest in opening multiple locations here as soon as possible -- and the state of New Jersey was one outdated law," Assemblyman Joseph Lagana (D-Bergen), a bill sponsor, said in a statement. "No other state in the country had that ban, and the bottom line is that it simply made New Jersey less competitive."
The New Jersey Games of Chance Control Commission denied the chain a waiver from the ban in 2013.
Dave & Buster's operates 76 locations across 30 states, including a number of locations not far from the New Jersey border in New York and Pennsylvania.
The company has said each location would create 200 construction jobs and employ up to 175 people. It also estimated each establishment would produce about $750,000 in sales tax revenue for the state.
Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.