Leisure Exchange

From Sega Retro

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Leisure Exchange
Founded: 1996
Defunct: 2017
Headquarters:
Pearl Assurance House, 319 Ballards Lane, London, United Kingdom

The Leisure Exchange Limited (formerly The Leisure Exchange PLC and The Mean Machines Limited) was a company who operated video game arcades and gambling venues in the United Kingdom.

On 31 March 2000, Sega Amusements Europe sold all the remaining venues they owned to the company as well as a five-year deal to use Sega branding for their venues. With this, Leisure Exchange were able to open new locations under the Sega Park name, and additionally over 18's venues dedicated to gambling machines, known as Sega Casino. After a while, Leisure Exchange began to convert some of the Sega Parks into their own branding or close them down.

Leisure Exchange has since been defunct, and it is unknown when they officially ceased operations. The final locations they operated were Bournemouth and Southampton, the former being sold off after numerous name changes, and the latter closing as a result of the Bargate Centre's own collapse in 2013. Companies House lists them being as being dissolved on 20 April 2017[1].

The only former Leisure Exchange venue that remains open as an arcade is the Bournemouth venue, which currently trades independently as Fun Central.

Venues

Website

Leisure Exchange had a Sega Park website with a message board, where users could post about the arcades.

Leisure Exchange however rarely ever updated the site, making it extremely outdated by the times new Sega Parks would open and the message board would later be the target of vulgar material being posted. An employee of Leisure Exchange would later post on the message board in March 2004 saying:

"Leisure Exchange PLC is seeking legal action against those responsible for posting offensive material on this website. It is unfortunate that we’ve been forced to take this action but due to the extreme nature of some postings we have no other option. We have a duty to our customers and shareholders to uphold the company image and WE WILL NOT allow a small minority to tarnish it! By ‘offensive material’ we mean abusive language, threating behavior and unjustified attacks against members of staff or the company. In the time coming, we will be approaching the ISP of any poster who has carried out such an activity WITH THE VIEW TO PROSECUTE! You have been warned!"

Leisure Exchange updated the site in October of 2004 to remove the material from the message board. The website went offline in mid-2006.

References

  1. https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/03163620 (Wayback Machine: 2018-03-30 13:33)