A trip described as “Skegness” can easily turn into two different days out. There is the town itself, and there is Ingoldmells, home to Fantasy Island on Sea Lane. Decide whether you want both before filling the day with plans. Fantasy Island announced its 2026 season opening for 21 March. The resort combines rides with a market, places to eat and indoor attractions, including arcades, bowling and mini-golf. That gives a mixed group more options than a visit built entirely around the rides. Start with the official ride calendar for the date you want. A season opening date is not a promise that every attraction runs every day or that all parts of the resort keep the same hours. Check how you intend to pay as well. Fantasy Island describes iCards as usable for individual rides, arcade games and food. Do not assume a ride wristband covers arcade spending; read the current package details before buying. If you are going specifically for older fruit machines, ask about the current line-up first. An amusement resort and a specialist retro collection are different kinds of visit, and this guide does not promise particular classic cabinets. Allow time to travel between central Skegness and Ingoldmells if you want both. Keeping one as the main destination, with the other as an optional stop, gives you room to enjoy the day without constantly watching the clock. Fantasy Island’s 2026 season announcement Check Fantasy Island’s ride calendar

An older fruit machine cannot always take a software update in the way a modern video cabinet can. That was the practical concern behind Bacta’s objections to proposed technical changes in autumn 2024: what would happen to machines that operators could not adapt? The trade association argued that new requirements could make some existing machines uneconomic to keep running. For an arcade with a collection of older reel games, the question was about the future of cabinets already on the floor, as well as the cost of replacing them. This was a dispute about proposals. The original headline suggested that reel-based machines were facing certain extinction, which went further than the evidence supported. A consultation is a chance to argue over the rules before decisions are made. The Gambling Commission’s formal gaming-machine consultation subsequently ran from 29 January to 3 June 2025. Its January 2026 announcement introduced a separate requirement, effective from 29 July 2026, for operators to remove machines when the Commission notifies them of specified licensing or technical-compliance failures. That announcement was not a blanket ban on mechanical reels. For anyone following the future of classic machines, the useful distinction is between a proposal, an adopted rule and a notice affecting a particular machine. The age of a cabinet alone does not tell the whole story. Gambling Commission: the 2025 gaming-machine consultation Gambling Commission: rules announced in January 2026

In December 2020, the government announced that the minimum age for playing the National Lottery would rise from 16 to 18. The change covered the whole range of National Lottery products, including draw tickets, scratchcards and online games. The legal change took effect on 1 October 2021. At the time of the announcement, the government also said it was working with the operator on an earlier change for online play. Ministers described the decision as a precautionary measure to protect young people. Keeping one minimum age across the Lottery’s different products also gave retailers a clearer rule to apply. For readers who followed the story through an amusement-arcade website, the scope matters. This announcement concerned the National Lottery; it did not, by itself, set new age rules for every type of amusement or gaming machine. This is a report on the 2020 announcement and its subsequent implementation, rather than an invitation to take part. Read the government’s December 2020 consultation response

Clubingo's idea was simple: start with bingo, then turn the evening into a live-music event. In November 2021, Majestic Bingo was promoting the format at its Mansfield and Barrow-in-Furness clubs. The events kept the traditional bingo session at the heart of the evening, before switching to the entertainment programme. That mattered because the aim was to add something to the clubs' existing nights, rather than make regular customers feel they had arrived at an entirely different venue. Ultrabeat was among the acts featured in the programme. The original report also discussed forthcoming appearances by 5ive and N-Trance. Those dates belong to the 2021–22 schedule and are not current listings. Majestic's management said the response had been positive and that it wanted to take the concept to more clubs. Those were the operator's claims at the time; the old article repeated some of them twice, which made the story longer without adding anything. The interesting part was the use of the clubs' space. A venue already set up for a sizeable evening audience could host bingo and then a performance, giving customers a different reason to stay after the final game. This report was first published on 19 November 2021. The expired merchandise draw and casino promotions previously attached to it have been removed.

Fancy running a seaside arcade? That was the question behind our November 2021 report on Fantasia Amusements in Southend. The business on Eastern Esplanade was being advertised as a going concern by local agent Dedman Grey. The particulars quoted a guide price of £195,000 and said the landlords were expected to grant a new 21-year lease. This was an advertised business opportunity at the time, not a sale of the freehold building or a current asking price. The listing described roughly 6,100 square feet on a prominent corner, with most of the space used for machines and customers moving around the arcade. Toilets, stores and offices were at the rear, alongside service access for deliveries. Modern and classic machines were both mentioned in the sales description. The business was said to be operating under management, with four full-time staff. Those details gave prospective buyers a better picture of the operation than the guide price alone. The original story invited readers to imagine what they would do with an arcade of their own. The practical reality, of course, would involve the lease, equipment, staff and day-to-day operation as well as choosing a favourite machine line-up. This is the listing reported on 15 November 2021. It does not indicate that Fantasia is currently for sale, and the historic figures should not be treated as present-day terms.

A night out became a three-night stay for guests at the Tan Hill Inn in November 2021. People who had travelled to the Yorkshire Dales pub to see an Oasis tribute band found themselves snowed in after the performance. Heavy snow blocked the route out. Abandoned vehicles and fallen power cables complicated efforts to clear access, leaving the guests and staff waiting for a safe way through. By Monday morning, a snowplough had reached the pub and some guests were able to follow it away. Our report, published on 30 November, picked up the story as people began heading home. It was an unusual situation, and the original article asked arcade regulars a playful question: how would they feel if an evening at their favourite venue unexpectedly became a much longer visit? The answer would probably depend on the company, the food and how soon the roads reopened. For the Tan Hill guests, the immediate concern was getting home safely after an evening that had gone well beyond anyone's plans. This is a short archive account of the November 2021 incident. The unrelated casino advertising that previously occupied much of the page has been removed.

Bridlington's arcades were the subject of an alarming claim in our November 2021 article: that a change in gambling law could cut the number of local gaming establishments by half. The report we can verify does not support that claim. The contemporary Local Democracy Reporting Service account, published by Greatest Hits Radio on 26 October 2021, described East Riding of Yorkshire Council's review of its gambling policy. It reported 19 licensed gambling premises in Bridlington: 11 adult gaming centres, five betting shops, two bingo halls and one family entertainment centre. The key detail was that the council expected its policy to remain largely the same, apart from adding more information about small lotteries. A consultation was planned for November and December. The national review of gambling legislation was a separate process. Neither that account nor the material quoted in our old article established a planned 50% reduction in Bridlington's venues. That assertion has been withdrawn, along with the suggestion that readers' favourite arcades were already facing closure because of this review. This is a correction to a 2021 news item. It should not be used as a statement about today's venue numbers or licensing policy. Read the contemporary Local Democracy Reporting Service report

After the shortened Victoria Pier returned to Colwyn Bay's promenade in 2021, the question was what should come next. The pier trust wanted the restored structure to become a place people could use and enjoy, with facilities that would give them a reason to stay. Our November 2021 report discussed proposals for an events and amusements venue. In the trust's own account that autumn, director Amy Dyke described work on designs for the shortened pier, followed by the longer-term ambition to extend it and reinstate facilities above the deck. The trust said it intended to hold public consultations once the plans were ready. Funding, permissions and the practical work of developing the site were still part of the process; the proposals were not a completed new arcade. The appeal was easy to understand. A pier can be somewhere to meet, watch an event or spend part of a seaside afternoon, as well as a landmark at the end of the promenade. The debate was about what combination of uses would serve Colwyn Bay. This article records the ambitions discussed in 2021. For progress since then, follow the pier trust's updates rather than treating the old proposals as a list of facilities open today. The pier trust's October 2021 account of its plans

Barry Island's old Bier Keller was back in the conversation in November 2021. The new owners of Dimes Amusements, Jamie Crole and his son Lewis, were reported to be planning a refurbishment and reopening of the Bavarian-themed bar. The attraction of the story was the building's history. The Bier Keller had first opened in 1969 and had been closed for decades. Photographs shared in local history groups prompted residents to compare the venue they remembered with what remained inside. Our report described a hoped-for reopening the following year. That was the plan being discussed in late 2021, rather than confirmation that the refurbishment had been completed or that bookings were available. The Croles were already associated with other Barry Island amusement businesses, including Carousel Amusements and Caesars Palace. Reviving another familiar venue fitted into a wider interest in keeping the resort's older entertainment spaces in use. For readers who remembered a night at the Bier Keller, the story was about more than a new bar. It was the possibility of seeing a long-closed part of Barry Island's social history open its doors again. This is an archive report from 25 November 2021. Check current local information before making plans around the venue.

Retropolis made a strong impression on our March 2023 visit to Southend-on-Sea. The attraction was the machine line-up: the kind of older fruit machines that can turn a quick look around an arcade into a much longer conversation about favourites you remember. The Maygay selection included Donkey Kong, Fight Night, The Pink Panther and EastEnders. Nearby were JPM machines including Roller Coaster, Monopoly 60th Anniversary and Colossus. Seeing those names together was the main reason the original report was so enthusiastic. The Astra multiplayer collection was another highlight. Party Bingo, Party Games, Hokey Cokey, Party Arena and Party Time Double Decker were among the machines noted during the visit. The report particularly praised having so many working examples together in one arcade. There were familiar Barcrest names too: Andy Capp, Road Hog and Viva Six Las Vegas. Machines from Impulse, Global and Empire added to the mix, alongside a small selection of retro video games. At the time, Retropolis was operating as a family amusement arcade. The original writer hoped more adult machines would follow once the necessary licence arrived, but that was a hope for the future, not a confirmed list of machines already available. Alan, Andy and their families received the thanks in the original report for bringing this collection to Southend. What came through most clearly was the pleasure of finding machines associated with childhood and teenage arcade visits back together on the seafront. This account describes the visit published on 26 March 2023. Machine line-ups and facilities can change, so anyone travelling for a particular cabinet should check directly with Retropolis before setting off.

Thriller does not hold back on the graveyard theme. A grinning figure reaches out beside the title, skulls line the lower glass, and a spider sits in the middle of the feature board. Crystal fills almost every spare bit of space with something suitably ghoulish. The version shown here carries an £8-jackpot marking. It sits in a JPM-branded cabinet, while Crystal's name appears on the game glass above the reels. Keeping those two details separate is more useful than assigning the machine a generic hardware description. The feature names are part of the fun. Lucky Headstones, Vampire's Wit, Horror Shocker and Demon Reels are spread across the top glass, alongside cash values, reel-symbol combinations and question marks. The spider's web forms another small group of positions in the middle. Below the board are three reels and a numbered nudge ladder. A separate Skill column runs down the right-hand side of the reel area, adding to the sense that there is something happening in every corner. Despite its name, the pictured artwork is a general monster-and-graveyard theme. There is no need to dress it up as a confirmed music or film tie-in when the cabinet itself already has plenty of character. Thriller is a busy-looking machine, and that is part of its charm. Its individual feature names and little horror jokes give it a personality that a list of reels, stakes and cabinet materials would completely miss.

Club Roller Coaster turns a trip around a theme park into a long, winding feature trail. JPM packs the route with nudges, win spins, mystery spaces and named rides, so there is considerably more to follow than the reels alone. Clo06's preserved emulator layout shows the club version with four reels and a £200 jackpot. That is an important distinction from the standard Roller Coaster machine previously pictured on this page. The mismatched photograph has been removed. The board snakes backwards and forwards across several rows. Ride names include Ghost Train, Fun House, Waltzer, The Nemesis, Cyclone and Shock Wave. Between them are positions such as Boost, Add Again and Ride Over, alongside different quantities of nudges and win spins. A cash ladder runs down the right, while Cashpot and Reserve displays sit above the Hi Lo area on the left. The four reels have their own Hold controls beneath them, followed by Exchange, Gamble and Start. The theme works because the board resembles a journey between attractions. The club layout's four reels and larger prize scale also deserve to be described separately from the better-known standard game. Source: Clo06's Club Roller Coaster layout and screenshot