Bacta slams gaming centre U-turn
The trade body has called on the government to reconsider its last-minute U-turn on allowing adult gaming centres in England to reopen.
UK.- The trade association Bacta has slammed the UK government’s decision to make a last-minute U-turn on allowing adult gaming centres to reopen this week.
The UK’s 3,000 adult gaming centres (AGCs) were due to be allowed to reopen on Monday June 15 along with other non-essential retail businesses, but the government Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport told businesses late on Friday that adult gaming centres would no longer be included on the list of high street premises given the green light.
Betting shops remain permitted to reopen provided premises take measures to protect against the spread of Covid-19.
Bacta, which represents UK amusements and high-street gaming manufacturers and operators, said operators had already made large investments to prepare for reopening since they had initially been included on the list of premises that would be permitted to resume business this week.
It has asked members to immediately contact “any political contact that they have” to call on the government to reverse the about-turn.
Bacta CEO, John White, said: “I cannot see how two very similar high street venues can be treated differently. There’s no logic to it and the consequences are nothing short of catastrophic to the AGC sector.
“Bacta is calling for every member to act immediately by phoning and emailing any political contact that they have whether an MP or local councillor, to tell the Prime Minister that he has made a serious mistake and he must reverse this outrageous decision.”
Bacta said its members had spent £2million to bring staff out of furlough, £2million on personal protective equipment and had used cash reserves to load machines with coin floats ready to reopen on Monday.
The body has said it would be easy for the government to allow AGCs to open without including family entertainment centres (FECs) and called on the government to use the Gambling Act definitions to clarify the distinction between AGCs and FECs, arguing that the term ‘amusement arcades’ used in Schedule 2 of the Coronavirus Act was ‘imprecise’.
White said that if the government replaced the terms with FECs it would allow AGCs to reopen.
