Arcades are passages formed by a succession of arches. Covered passageways are naturally excellent places for vendors to set up stalls, and already by the 1730s "arcade" was used to mean a passageway lined with shops and amusements. Such passageways could be found in many cities, like the St. George's Street in Dublin, the Lord Street Arcade in Liverpool, the Argyll Street Arcade in Glasgow, or the Market Arcade in Buffalo. Many of these places are still open, still filled with shops and still called arcades. By 1910 penny arcades in the same architectural style were popular, filled with slot machines and fortune-telling machines. It's a short hop from there to video arcades.