As Dhaka loses open spaces, gaming cafés fill the gap

The idea for Clubhouse DHK at Dhanmondi began with a deceptively simple question.

One night last year, its founder, Tahsin Alam Chowdhury, was sitting with his wife, trying to decide where they could go.

They sat there for quite some time, and at the end, they realised the only activity to do in Dhaka was to eat.

"That night, I sat with her for almost two to three hours. We kept coming back to the same thing: there was nothing to do apart from eating," said Tahsin. "I was thinking about creating something for recreation. My wife said, 'Why don't you do it? This might work.'"

That conversation eventually became a business and a year later, people are coming to Clubhouse for more than just games.

The growing demand for such a space has a simple reason: Dhaka has developed rapidly, but leisure has not necessarily kept pace.

For many people, going out, as Tahsin realised, increasingly means going somewhere to eat. A restaurant, a café, a shopping mall — there are plenty of places to spend money, but fewer places to simply spend time. It is from this gap that this new kind of recreational space has begun to emerge.

Gaming cafés are appearing in parts of Dhaka, offering something that is not quite a restaurant, not quite an arcade and not quite a traditional café. People come to play PlayStation, try board games, eat, talk, meet friends — and sometimes, according to the owners, simply sit around for a few hours.

The growing demand for gaming cafés has a simple reason: Dhaka has developed rapidly, but leisure has not necessarily kept pace.

Who comes here?

Inside Dhaka's gaming cafés, the distinction between a gaming café and a recreational room becomes harder to make. At one station, someone is immersed in a story-driven game on a PlayStation. Nearby, a group of teenagers are playing 8-ball. At another table, young women sit together over a board game, talking between turns.

The games vary, but so do the people playing them; the customers are not limited to children or teenagers. 

According to Tahsin, Clubhouse's customers range from young girls to corporate employees who come down from work for a break.

"In fact, most of our customers are young girls," Tahsin said.

We found Sabiha Alam hanging out with her friends at the café.

"We come here together to hang out. When we hang out outdoors, we do not feel safe. It doesn't feel like a safe space. Here we stay for hours, sometimes we do nothing, but at least no one keeps staring at us for being normal," said Sabiha.

Clubhouse isn't the only one. Verte Vortex in Banani, Checkpoint in Bashundhara, and others have opened across the city in recent years.

Another such place is Vice City Gaming Cafe in Khilgaon. The café combines gaming stations with food and a retro aesthetic inspired by the neon, nightlife-like atmosphere associated with the video game "GTA Vice City". Customers can come to play, eat, or both.

For Emon Chowdhury, the owner of Vice City Gaming Cafe, the idea was slightly different.

When he opened the café in August 2025, he was not trying to build a place where people would simply rent a console for an hour. He wanted to build what he describes as "a social place built around gaming".

"I always felt that gaming is a major part of youth culture," Emon said. "But there were not many places where you could get a comfortable ambience, a well-designed environment, gaming and food together."

The concept was partly personal; Emon wanted to create a place that he himself would want to visit.

Ayan Rahman, a student at National Ideal College who lives in a nearby hostel, is one of the frequent customers who come to the gaming café. He often comes to Vice City Gaming Cafe alone, usually to play story-based games on the PlayStation, a 30-minute session of which costs him Tk150.

However, coming alone does not necessarily mean being by himself. Ayan enjoys spending time in the presence of other people around him.

At Clubhouse DHK, customers can pay for gaming sessions, while a silver membership costs Tk3,000 and allows unlimited entry for two hours, according to the management. Some customers also pay the regular entry fee simply to spend time there. Nearby office workers, for example, sometimes stay for two or three hours, talking, playing Jenga or Ludo, or doing little more than hanging out.

The growing demand for gaming cafés has a simple reason: Dhaka has developed rapidly, but leisure has not necessarily kept pace.

An indoor space for socialising

In Clubhouse DHK, we met Khairul Kabir, a father who often brings his daughter here after school.

"Where do I take my daughter for recreation? After all, she needs a break from school. In Dhaka's heat, I can't let her play out in the field; she falls ill."

Heat has become another obstacle to outdoor recreation in Dhaka. As the city has grown denser and greener spaces have shrunk, the places where residents can comfortably spend time outdoors have become fewer and, during the hotter months, increasingly difficult to use.

But the problem is not only about temperature. It is also about access.

A 2018 study of children and parents in four Dhaka neighbourhoods found that 80% of the children surveyed considered having open spaces in their neighbourhood the best way to improve their opportunities to play. The same study found that children in areas with fewer accessible open spaces were more likely to rely on video games for recreation.

For parents like Kabir, the result is a difficult choice: keep children indoors, or pay for a private space where they can spend time safely and comfortably.