Before you sit down
Check for reserved cards. A small card on the seat or a tray on the ledge means someone has claimed the machine — often just stepped away for five minutes. Sitting anyway is the fastest way to make an enemy on the floor, and it starts your evening in a dispute you didn't need.
Load your card at the cage first. Newcomers often sit at a machine and realise they've got no credit, then leave their bag on the seat while they queue — which, see above, causes confusion. Do the cage first: membership card if you have one, day pass loaded with whatever you're comfortable spending.
Watch for a minute before you play. Standing over a free machine watching how it feeds is completely normal — regulars do it constantly. Nobody will think you're hovering for their seat; the floor reads it as a player doing their homework.
Nobody writes the rules down because nobody needed to — you learn the room by paying attention to it.
At the machine
Keep your space compact. Your tray, your drink, your phone — anything beyond that belongs on the hooks or in a locker. Spreading across two seats during peak hours is the one behaviour floor staff will actually mention to you.
The tray etiquette is simple: balls stay in your trays, not on the floor, not in pockets, not stacked on the machine edge. Staff walk the aisles constantly and a kicked-over tray is a mess everyone pays for in time.
The unwritten social rules
If you need a break, mark your machine properly — tray on the ledge or the reserved card if you're a member. A clean tray with ten minutes of silence reads as abandoned; a marked seat is respected for a reasonable break.
Conversation volume follows the room. The floor is loud, so nobody expects silence — but the player beside you is one metre away and mid-session. Quick comments and congratulations are welcome; running commentary on your session is not.
Celebrate inside your seat. A big win is genuinely exciting and the floor likes energy — but staying planted rather than standing to celebrate keeps the row calm. And the simplest one of all: if a staff member is working on a neighbouring machine, the polite move is to pause your session for the thirty seconds it takes.
Key takeaways
- A card or tray on a seat means the machine is taken
- Load credit before you sit, not after
- Watching machines before playing is normal — do it
- Keep your space to one seat and your balls in the tray
Related reading at the club
Written by
Lena Novak
Floor host and front-of-house lead