Leeds casino introduces outdoor gambling

Grosvenor Casino received a licence extension to offer outdoor gambling at its Leeds facility.

UK.- The Leeds City Council approved an extension to Grosvenor Casino’s gambling licence this week. This allows for machines to be installed in the Leeds casino outdoor smoking area. The decision comes despite heavy opposition from a local councillor.

The council’s licensing sub-committee met this week to discuss the application for Grosvenor Casino to “increase gambling facilities” to part of its ground floor smoking shelter, Leeds Live reports.

Councillor Karen Bruce said that this move puts problem gamblers at risk. She believes that allowing the activity outdoors could affect people that seek to leave the building to “cool off”.

Councillor Neil Buckley said that they recently attended the casino to familiarise themselves with the settings of the facility and said: “There would be no partition to separate the licensed and unlicensed area of the smoking area. [The casino] does not anticipate introducing any more than four machines to the area. This will start with two and could rise to four if there is demand.”

Paddy Whur, representative of the owners of the Grosvenor Casino located in Leeds, was at the meeting. He named a number of districts that received extensions to include outdoor areas as well.

“In other cases, the application was to license the whole of the smoking area, rather than part of it. We want to retain a non-licensed area too, so that people can have a cigarette if they want to and not be in the gambling area. None of the responsible authorities have had concerns with the application we have made,” said Whur.