Admiral Casino’s 24-Hour London Casino Plan Stirs Strong Feelings

Admiral Casino is aiming to extend its opening hours to 24 hours a day at its high street branch in West London. The Earl’s Court Road shop is currently open 8am to 11.30pm Sunday to Thursday, and until midnight on Friday and Saturday, but it is keen to become a round-the-clock service.

The driving force behind its desire to be open all hours is to cater to customers working in the nighttime economy or who have irregular shift patterns. Luxury Leisure, which owns Admiral Casino, insists concerns surfaced over gambling addictions aren’t connected to the planning application.

So far, there have been 200 objections to the plan, and zero letters of support. And it seems some of the concerns raised are linked to a change in identity of the area.

Residents furious over plans

Earl’s Court is crammed with betting shops and Adult Gaming Centres (AGCs). A visit carried out by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) indicated it found two betting shops and two AGCs within a stone’s throw of Admiral Casino. Earl’s Court Society Chair, Francesco Zibellini, who represents the interests of residents, believes Admiral Casino’s application should be denied.

He said: “I frankly think [the application] should be refused definitely. This is a residential area.

“Look around you. I mean, most of these houses are residential, so of course having another site that is going to be open 24 hours is going to increase the potential for noise and nuisance.”

Crime occupies focus of fight

Crime has been affecting Earl’s Court, and this has spread fear among residents. As things stand, the area is subject to a Public Space Protection order to curb anti-social behaviour (ASB).

Interestingly, the Met Police statistics indicated ASB contributed 30% of all reported crimes in Earl’s Court in the past 12 months, with 711 incidents logged. Next on the list was violence and sexual offences, with 471 incidents noted, accounting for 20% of crimes.

A mini Las Vegas in the making?

One of the Earl’s Court AGCs (Silver Time) has a 24-hour licence, while there is a 24-hour Burger King, with McDonald’s applying for the same licence. And Zibellini has suggested Earl’s Court is at risk of morphing into a ‘mini Las Vegas’ if Admiral Casino gets its way.

He added: “What I see is that when [the council] is evaluating these applications for  24-hour [operations], they just consider the absolute impact, which means they say, oh, there is no substantial increase [in noise or antisocial behaviour], but that is actually wrong.

“You put a stone over a stone and another stone and another stone, and in 15 years, this is going to end up like a mini Las Vegas. That’s what we are very much concerned about as residents here.”

Admiral Casino’s next steps

Admiral Casino has already lodged an application to the council to lift the restricted opening hours in Bearwood, which is in the West Midlands. As far as the Earl’s Court branch is concerned, a Council Planning Committee meeting has been scheduled for this evening.

Residents will convene at 6.30pm at Kensington Town Hall to hear a review of the application, and members of the public are also invited to attend.

Kensington and Chelsea Council were approached for comment, but they declined to do so as they didn’t want to pre-empt what the committee had to say. Admiral Casino still has a few hoops to jump through, but this is a debate that is likely to rumble on for some time.

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