The London casinos in a bid to limit the impact of COVID transmission have made the offer to self-impose the 10 pm bar curfew.
The city’s elites and executives are divided in the opinion but the executives of 26 top casinos of London wrote a letter to London Mayor Sadiq Khan explaining this.
This move comes after Mayor Khan supported blanket curfew post 10 pm as was proposed by MPs.
Emphasizing about the devastating impacts of full property closure as proposed by Mayor Khan, the executives in the letter oppose it in light of falling revenues and economy.
An excerpt from the letter read, “By all means address the core issue of drinking rather than slamming a blanket curfew on our venues which would do nothing to suppress the spread of the virus but which would simply sound the death knell for jobs and for famous London casinos,” as reported by Gambling Insider (September 21, 2020).
Notably, the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) had last week warned about devastating consequences of the blanket curfew post 10 pm. The Council was of the opinion that it might result in job losses of thousands of people as the gambling, gaming, alcohol industry is usually active after 10 pm.
The executives of London Casinos decided to take this step when Mayor Khan supported the blanket curfew. According to Casino executives, the refusal to sell alcohol voluntarily on part of casino bars would prevent the gathering of huge crowds and thus minimize the transmission risk of the virus.