Casino gets green light to extend alcohol hours to fix bizarre midweek rule

By Ben Lynch, Local Democracy Reporter

A Marylebone casino has been granted permission to sell alcohol into the early hours at weekends to fix a bizarre anomaly that meant they could already do so midweek but not on their busiest nights. 

The Victoria Casino in Edgware Road requested to amend its Saturday and Sunday hours to allow it to sell alcohol from 10am until 6am the next day, bringing it in-line with its trading on other days.

Currently, the casino and its poker room, which operate under different licences, are able to sell alcohol between 10am and 4am on a Saturday and Sunday.  On a Sunday and Monday, the casino’s hours are listed as noon to 6am.

The two applications to Westminster council, filed by Grosvenor Casinos for the casino and The Gaming Group for the poker room, sought to amend their licences to enable alcohol sales between 10am and 6am on weekends. 

A series of conditions relating to the sale of alcohol were also requested to be removed.

Objections were received from the Hyde Park Estate Association and the Marylebone ward councillors, who claimed that late night alcohol licences “do not belong” in areas next to residential homes, which they said was also a “gambling vulnerability zone.”

Peter Turpin, general manager at the casino, said he did not intent to change anything about the way the premises runs, and that the applications are purely concerned with the hours alcohol could be sold.

An immediate decision was not announced at the committee meeting. The full notices are still to be published on the council website, though the LDRS has been told both applications were approved.

Pictured top: Victoria Casino in Edgware Road (Picture: Google Street View)