Arcade Club gets go ahead to take over former Blackpool casino building

Town hall planners used their delegated powers to approve the application by Arcade Club to install more than 200 machines into the former Sam Thai casino premises on Bloomfield Road.

They ruled although such developments should be in either district centres or the town centre, the benefits of the investment justified going against the usual policy.

It was also accepted the company had looked at various alternative premises including the former Las Iguanas site on the Promenade and the empy Argos store on Albert Road but none had proved suitable due to their size or lack of parking.

A council report adds: “They consider that the whole concept of Arcade Club is to make it accessible to everyone and good value for money.

“In order to achieve that, they have to keep running costs at a very low amount and being out of the centre of Blackpool brings cost in much lower and makes them financially viable.

“The old casino building was brought to their attention by Blackpool Unlimited and fits their profile perfectly.”

The scheme was first revealed last year, but was delayed when the council said the applicant had to apply for full planning permission to use the former casino which closed in 2015.

Retro gaming machines will include the likes of Pac-Man and Space Invaders while modern computer based games such as World of Warcraft, Doom, Minecraft and Fortnite, and board and card games such as Warhammer and Pokemon, would also be available.

No gambling machines are proposed and a separate over-18 gaming room would be provided for older age classification games.

Players pay an admission fee and once inside can play games for free, while there would also be licensed refreshment areas.

In its planning application, Arcade Club, which currently has sites in Bury and Leeds, said its machines are “all in their original condition with all their original parts”, bringing “something unique to Blackpool” while attracting visitors from all over the UK.