Its a great idea Swinksy and I have been looking at trying to do something similar on the Gold Coast over the last 12 months but local councils are VERY against a pinny parlour/arcade centre and for some reason alot of the older people sitting on the yes or no committees always think an arcade will bring bunchs of bad kids doing bad things etc, and you have to get council feasability studies done etc etc, and so on, plus the public liability etc is huge. The only way to get around it, is that u have to state that it is not open to the general public, at all, and that its a private collection, only open to private members, but there are still many hoops to jump over.  Perhaps your area will be different. ?  Its worth checking out.

I do know, that local council buildings, that do allow public access, and short term rentals for 2 and 3 day events, like community halls etc, usually already have government and public liability already paid for and set up and u are generally covered by their insurances, thats what i have found in QLD.

I am not sure how your idea can work with a government provided building cause they only usually give a 2 to 4 day permit, but its still worth checking out, cause the private option is way expensive, but i see where u are going wioth it, its like a pinball co-operative, which sounds like a good idea if u can find the right premises.