Times are hard for Britain’s seaside arcade and amusement centres, which have been affected badly by the impact of gambling legislation on gaming machines, as well as other factors.  However, industry leaders claim the new legislation has had the biggest impact on arcades, which has reduced their revenue by a fifth.

The Gambling Act which became law in September contains legislation to limit the number of gaming machines permitted in an entertainment venue as well as reducing the stakes on these gaming machines.

The British Amusement Catering Trade Association (Bacta) has stated that the impact of these laws has been disastrous.  Hundreds of jobs have been lost and many amusement arcades are facing the possibility of closing down.

Bacta has surveyed 600 trade members the results of which found out that on average the loss of income for the last four months of 2007 compared with the last four months of 2006, was as high as 21 percent. 

Nick Harding of Bacta has warned that the impact of the gambling laws is that, gamblers will be moving from softer gambling venues to venues where harder forms of gambling take place.  He said, “The corollary of this must be a potential increase in problem gambling rates.  This is an outcome nobody wants, and is the exact opposite of the objectives of the Gambling Act.”

The Gambling Act has cut the maximum stake in arcade and bingo gaming machines from £2 to £1 with the maximum jackpots reduced to £500.  Venues were prior to the law allowed as many machines as they wished now this has been cut to a maximum of four.  There is however a loophole to this law.  Previous legislation restricted the number of machines in public areas but defined gaming machines as servers.  Operators have exploited this by basing servers off-site and putting non-server machines on their premises.

Bacta said they are 26,000 jobs in the gaming machine sector and many of these are extremely insecure.  Mr Harding said Bacta’s members were in “desperate straits” and urgent action is needed to save the industry.

MPs from seaside constituencies have signed an early day motion, saying the Gambling Act had created an unfair advantage for adult gaming venues against arcade and amusement centres.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said, “It would be unusual for us to revisit … a new piece of legislation … so soon after implementation when we consulted thoroughly on this during the passage of the bill.”