Chatham’s Riverview Gaming Centre will open for TapTix play and Play-On-Demand games starting this Friday.
Owner and manager Carla Fox says the local gaming centre will not be able to open for bingo play due to the restrictions still in place.
“We were very pleased yesterday to hear that Chatham-Kent was moving to Phase 3 of COVID Re-Opening,” says Fox in an online statement on the Riverview Gaming Centre Facebook page. “However, the max capacity of 50 customers for indoor facilities is not ideal for the gaming centre.
Riverview and similar bingo halls including Wallaceburg’s Hometown Bingo find the current restrictions too taxing, with a maximum of only 50 customers allowed in the building.
“We can not operate a regular Bingo session while following the max capacity of 50 customers. We are very frustrated with this decision,” adds Fox. “We have a big building with a max capacity of 700. We have spent a great deal of time, energy and money to develop a plan that include strict physical distancing while allowing 17 customers to play TapTix and 81 customers to play Bingo. Unfortunately we are not able to offer our loyal customers regular Bingo sessions at this time.”
Although Riverview hopes to be back with regular bingo sessions as soon as possible, for the time being they will restrict themselves to only TapTix play and Play-On-Demand games.
Fox says they explored the option of parking lot bingo, but are not able to offer it because they are classified as an Electronic Gaming Centre.
Riverview Gaming Centre will re-open on Friday from 10am to 10pm
“We are very excited that we get to re-open and this is the start of more great things,” says Fox. “We look forward to reconnecting with our customers & charities.”
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