A near fifty-year ban on arcades is about to be reversed in the US city of White Plains, New York.
The Westchester County city, north of the Big Apple, has had a ban in place since the ‘70s after religious leaders, upset by what they saw as video game violence, successfully campaigned for them to be outlawed.
The ban currently covers many genres of amusement attractions including laser tag and esports and the reversal is good news, not only for the industry there but also for residents of the affluent suburb who can currently get a tattoo or buy alcohol but can’t play Pac-Man.
2018 saw the attempted opening of an esports venue in the city’s Galleria Mall and got to the point of having moved into a retail space before it came to light that a zoning code prohibited operation.
White Plains mayor Thomas Roach told CBS2: “There was a time when Times Square was seedy, and they had a lot of arcades. Things were happening there that were not favoured, and I think in general communities didn’t think arcades were a good thing to have.”
White Plains briefly repealed the ban before reinstating it in 1999. But now with esports facilities gaining traction globally and the equally world-wide struggles of bricks and mortar retail space, the city council is expected to drop the ban to allow amusement activities.
The city council will soon set a date for a public hearing, and is expected to vote on the issue before summer.
