Bacta appoints John Bollom as interim VP
John Bollom will lead a review of the land-based gaming hall trade association’s governance structure.
UK.- The British Amusement Catering Trade Association (Bacta) has appointed John Bollom as its interim vice president. He replaces Trevor Sutton and will lead a review of Bacta’s governance structure.
Bollom is the managing director of Swansea’s Mumbles Entertainment Pier. Bacta said that Sutton has stepped down from the trade body to focus on external commitments. A review of the trade association’s governance structure is expected to be completed by March 2023.
Bacta president Greg Wood said: “I am sad to see Trevor step down as vice president, but I would like to pay tribute to his hard work and dedication over the past 18 months and wish him all the best in the future.
“At the same time, I would like to congratulate John, who brings decades of experience with him to the role of vice president.”
Bollom said: “I am honoured to be appointed as vice president at Bacta at this critical time for the industry. We are still yet to see the government’s gambling review white paper and many of our members are dealing with a cost-of-living crisis.
“I will continue to head the review into Bacta’s governance structure and work closely with John White as CEO and Greg as president of Bacta.”
Earlier this month, Bacta renewed its call for customers to be allowed to use debit cards to play on gaming machines. The industry body has written to Damian Collins, the minister who’s been given responsibility for gambling in the UK following Chris Philp’s resignation.
Bacta is calling for the UK’s review of gambling legislation to contemplate the introduction of laws to allow debit card transactions for play on gaming machines at land-based gambling venues.
White has expressed concern that the government’s much-delayed gambling white paper may ignore the land-based amusement sector’s request for card transactions to be allowed. He says such a move would seriously jeopardise the future of the sector due to the decreased use of cash.
Meanwhile, Bacta has reported that the UK’s seaside gaming arcades and adult gaming centres are struggling with recruitment due to the cost of living crisis. It said that a majority of its members were having difficulty in finding “willing and able employees”.
Some of the members that responded to the association’s survey expressed concerns about the future financial viability of their companies. Asked to rate the difficulty of recruiting staff on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the most difficult, the average score was 7.2. Results were better when it came to staff retention, with the average score being 3.8.
