The latest stop on the Arcade Tour sees Kevin Williams return to the suburbs of the UK, visiting the London Borough of Croydon. The mix of commercial and retail is strong and there are plenty of examples of how amusement plays a vital supporting role to the bowling, cinema, gambling, betting and even bingo scene.

One of the largest commercial centres, over nine miles outside of the centre of London, Croydon is located in south London. The area is a major shopping mecca surrounded by suburbs.

The town sits at the heart of a major regeneration programme, as the shopping and urban planning of the London Borough of Croydon embraces new development aand new transport network - including the return of the tram to the area.

For Croydon, the love affair with video amusements has a long history. In the mid-80s a number of video amusement arcades set up shop in the popular Surrey Street market road, while a number of record shops opened up their basement to a gathering of cabinets. In the present day, the relationship is drastically different.

Amusement still resides in the heart of the urban mix, but for Croydon, as for other towns and cities in the south of England, amusement is a component of the bigger picture rather than the main activity. This gives us a detailed perspective on the present and future of the genre. The split in the public sector sees amusement segmented into three key markets, the first being mixed-use entertainment, the second hospitality and the third gaming. Where amusement was once able to stand alone as the main entertainment, it now offers a valuable revenue stream.

Mixed-use entertainment

Where single experience venues cannot survive, mixed use sees amusement added to support a wide diversity of entertainment to keep patrons spending longer. One of the current homes for amusement in the mixed-entertainment environment has been the cinema scene - multi-screen sites using arcade games to support concession sales.

One of the predominant cinema chains in the Croydon area, the Vue operation has two sites within a mile of each other. Following aggressive acquisition, the chain now operates 62 cinemas. The first site, located in the city centre, has a ground floor entrance from the main street that includes a smattering of amusement machines. Along with a driving game, a dance machine and some prize machines there is a photo sticker system. But upstairs, the cinema’s dedicated amusement room, branded Games, was closed and abandoned.

The site had been visited a few months previously, so it was a surprise to see the profitable amusement element of the concession removed and the space shuttered and left empty.

Only a mile away from the city centre in the Valley Park Leisure area and the second Vue cinema venue offered a large presence, but like the other the arcade Games room was closed and abandoned. In this case there were no amusement machines anywhere at the site. Attempts to ask the Vue organisation why their Games venues had closed were unsuccessful at the time of going to print.

Also in the Valley Park Leisure area, the second example of mixed-use entertainment was represented by the Tenpin bowling facility. Recently refurbished, the site presented a large, well-themed and popular mixture of bowling, gaming, amusement and hospitality all in one place.

At the site, the amusement area was split into two main blocks, the first with a Simworx Venturer two-rider capsule simulator and a large number of the latest dedicated amusement titles that included House of the Dead 4 and SuperBikes. The site had over 15 videos, with a large number of crane games, including a UFO Catcher and prize machine.

Amusement supporting the multi-lane bowing areaconsisted of four AWPs and seven pool tables in the bar area. The Valley Park location includes a number of fast food and more formal family friendly restaurants, all adding t the entertainment anchor effect achieved - adding entertainment to hospitality.

Hospitality

Following an increase in the social drinking scene, the bar, club and pub market has turned to amusement and gaming to support revenue. This effort has been increased with the loss of income brought about by the smoking ban.

One of the best examples of the mix of the public house and the amusement scene is the The George pub, located on one of the main streets leading to the city centre. Owned and operated by Wetherspoon, the venue is a large modern recreation of the traditional perception but on a grand scale.

The UK’s modern pub mix has come to include a good smattering of AWPs and SWPs and The George is no different. The venue has a relationship with SWP developer Inspired - its networked itBox was being avidly played. The site had a large number of AWPs, with over six units in two groups on the floor - this is one of the largest gatherings of such systems in one site in the area.

Next to the pub scene in Croydon there is an extensive bar and club element - located alongside a number of private pool and poker rooms. The city centre has some popular bars that run into nightclubs late into the night.

A leading exponent of this watering hole environment is the WalkAbout Australian-themed bar chain. Located a short distance from the city centre, the site offers an eclectic mix of amusement to support an extensive bar layout. One of the unusual amusement additions to the hospitality experience was a BoxerFun amusement machine. The test of strength punch ball machine is a popular import from its normal home in the States, a new trend appearing in many facilities appealing to both male and female young drinkers.

An element in these machines’ popularity is contract-less revenue sharing and special purchasing agreements, putting to shame some of the traditional amusement routes. Operators also benefit from repeat players trying to beat the venue’s highest score.

Along with AWPs, the site had two SWPs, a well-used itBox and a competitive Paragon unit - it was not known if they were network enabled. Neither was it known if the site’s Golden Tee Golf machine was online, though on the visit the machine was broken. All these amusement systems were supported by three pool and one foosball table.

Gaming

As seen above, where amusement is added to food and fun there is also the more traditional gaming aspect of the amusement dimension. This sector itself is split into tree areas of business including gaming, betting and bingo.

An example of the chain operation offering a professional face to gaming, the Atlantis Amusements venue located close to the city centre is one of two sites in Croydon. The venue included over 30 gaming systemsin a plush and clean environment. The other Atlantis venue, located close to the Surry Street market road (in a similarly sized venue) also offered a wide selection of reel machines and restricted entrance.

Another example of the professional gaming site is located in the heart of the pedestrian shopping centre. The Shoppers Amusements site is a large retail placement with two dedicated floors of gaming on the ground and a mini casino in the basement. With over 40 gaming machines, this site also employs a special entry system to separate the street from the gaming floor, encouraging a safe and comfortable environment with the need to ensure over-18 patrons.

The venue seemed to want to speak to passing shoppers, encouraging play in this modern gaming environment; the site had even embraced new technology with new smart card prize storage technology.

An example of the seedier side of the market is a totally unsigned gaming facility. Proclaiming “Now open 24 hours” and that the site had “£500 cash payout” jackpots, the site does not attempt to hide the machines from passing shoppers. Inside is a higgledy-piggledy mix of over 30 gaming reel games, with a sprinkling of AWP units; though a sign on the door claimed an over-18 policy, it was hard to see how this was being policed.

The site is a reflection of the ongoing problem of policing new government legislation to ensure that gaming is deployed responsibly – on the trip round the Croydon area a number of venues were seen flaunting recent legislation and illegally operating AWP and SWP machines in mini-cab stores and fast food joints. How the local council plans to police these issues is unknown.

The impact of the licensed betting office on the original gaming scene is very evident in Croydon. On the opposite side of the road to the market road Atlantis gaming venue is one of a number of William Hill LBO facilities. Inside this clean and light facility (benefiting from the smoking ban) and along with the onscreen horse racing and sports betting, there are four fixed-odds betting terminals.

The FOBT represents a modern take on the pay-to-play and win concept. These examples include bill readers and dual screens with updatable content; it was easy to see why the betting office facilities in Croydon were all running numbers of FOBTs. It represented a glimpse at what the modern gaming audience needs to play.

Finally in looking at the amusement application in Croydon we come to bingo. The city centre’s second largest shopping arcade (Centrale) includes a Mecca Bingo facility. The bingo lobby is fighting hard to survive and the Croydon location was a clean and stylish example of the popular pastime.

Visited on an overcast Thursday, the site was still very well attended with a predominantly female audience. The entrance boasts the £3m payout in prizes over 2007 and looked to draw a crowd. The amusement mix in the site is split into two areas. In a closed-off area near the entrance is a recreation of some of the gaming sites previously visited with over 30 AWP and reel games (and even an SWP).

On the bingo floor, among the players, there is a second grouping of gaming machines to catch the player’s eye. Though the bingo industry is working hard to gain government support regarding crippling legislation affecting its ability to profitably operate, this Croydon example shows what can be achieved with the core audience.

What this could all mean

What was seen on this visit showed that amusement had penetrated nearly every aspect of the food, fun and gaming scene. However, there was one area that seemed to have been missed.

Unlike examples such as Dubai or Chicago, the creation of a retail entertainment element to the shopping mix was sadly missing in Croydon, as it is across the UK. Where venues such as GamesWorks, Dave and Buster’s and even Chuck E Cheese have successfully penetrated the US market, the UK scene has failed to create a workable chain.

Attempts were made in the 90s to establish Dave andBuster’s and even SegaWorld, but the momentum was lacking. Now with a change in the spending habits of the UK audience and a need for value for money social entertainment, could amusement widen its reach?