Scottish licensees must now switch off gaming machines in their pubs until further notice after originally being told by the Scottish government that they could restart them from July 22nd.
The apparent Holyrood u-turn the machines must remain switched off as part of Scotland’s anti-coronavirus measures happened on the very same day, leaving licensees no option but to turn off machines that had only been switched back on a few hours beforehand.
Scott McGillivray, Managing Director of Glasgow-based gaming machine company SIMS Automatics, is baffled by the move. He told DRAM, “This move has been both confusing and frustrating to us. We took a lot of time and effort to prepare the machines for use ahead of the date we were given by the Scottish government, including un-furloughing many of our staff.
“What’s more, there was nothing in the original guidance that said that gaming machines couldn’t be used in pubs as long as licensees were following strict cleaning regimes like wiping them down after each use, so this move is baffling.”