Flamingo Amusements — Attraction in Hastings

This arcade has become my “go-to” place when I’m 1. trying to make a big life decision, 2. in the aftermath of receiving a really stressful or hostile email, 3. trying to process something good that’s just happened to me, if I’m uncomfortable about how good it is. The arcades act as a balm to these disparate emotional states, similar to how smoking cigarettes did when I was younger. The thick, patterned carpets straightaway lift my spirits, especially when the whole place is lit by thousands of lights of different shapes and sizes. It’s insanely colourful, but not in a “tasteful” way – it feels like being inside a variety bag of sweets – and surprising, funny soundbites emit sporadically from the machines as you walk past them (phrases from Dracula, Homer Simpson, the Minions etc).

My daughter likes the 2p machines, and she’s become good at winning the trinkets laid out on top of the coins. When I was a child, there were no trinkets at all; the game was just to try to win more 2ps than you came with, but this never happened. Everything is more child-centric now. eg instead of old, creepy, puppet-like, puppet-holding TV presenters in a tiny child time slot, she gets to watch fun, young, entrepreneurial You-tubers on screen, whenever she wants.

Our routine at the arcades is to first walk round all the 2p machines (there are about 30 in total), see which toys she likes best, then see which of those toys are nearest to the edge. While we’re doing that we also check the trays to see if 2ps have fallen down unclaimed, which happens more often than you’d think. We collect these free 2ps, then go to the change machine to get more. The sound of fifty 2ps dropping into our pot from just the one pound coin we put in already feels like winning.

Trinkets my daughter has won on these machines include: string voodoo doll keychain x 4, throw-on-a-wall sticky jelly rabbit, pink bunny car with yellow trailer, translucent pink teddy bear keyring, small plush mouse in sleeping bag, bubble tea keyring, flamingo keyring x 4, gecko keyring, mini rubik’s cube keying, ice-cream mini squishy, smiling rainbow and cloud mini squishy.

Though I like it a lot, and think of it as a kind of anti-depression space, I never go there by myself because I know I’d feel like one of the weirdos (sorry weirdos). I also don’t go when it’s busy, because the presence of more than 3 other people immediately transforms the place into a hellscape. PLUS points: the staff there never act annoying or depressing; it’s like none of us are playing by the usual stuffy, depressing, blame-oriented rules of middle-class towns. We’re playing by the rules of fun-town. The only thing I can fault is the Coronation Street machine that emits the Coronation Street soundtrack, really one of the most depressing sounds I can think of. My mum used to watch this programme three times a week in the 80s when there was just one screen in the house.

BONUS MEMORY - me and my daughter were here one time after school when the staff asked if I minded if a music video was filmed whilst we were there. I had already clocked that there were 30-year-olds milling around, without children, looking stylish, cool and accomplished (not the usual crowd, sorry the usual crowd). I said I didn’t mind at all, getting quite excited, and asked who the band was, so I could look them up. (It was “Declan Mckenna”.)

My daughter had got to the last 2p in her pot, without having won the prize she had her eye on, and asked me for another pound coin to go and change into more 2ps, and I got a pound coin out of my bag, with an eye roll, just as one of the young video crew walked past and locked eyes with me. I wished he hadn’t seen me sigh. I wanted him to know that I liked giving my daughter pound coins very much, I wanted him to know I was happy here. It’s true I wasn’t using the arcades ironically, as I guess they were, for their music video. Still, I knew other worlds, had lived in London only ten years ago, and felt I had...

Having lived in Hastings my entire life, a visit to the arcades was an integral part of my childhood. The penny machines were very much a 'soft gambling' enterprise with Claw Machines being mostly a money pit, with occasional winners. It used to be that a fiver was enough to get a few cheap toys, worth pennies, but enough to create an enjoyable experience for kids.

I was beyond shocked when I took my son there a month ago to find the following.

Run down machines, out of order or still taking money but breaking half way through. Machines which had a huge emphasis on winning tickets, but £1 minimum play and about 5-10 seconds play time.

The 2 pence machines were sparsely stocked with toys and you needed at least £10 to win one small, cheap keyring. Toys would get stuck and there seemed to only be one member of staff on the floor catering to about 100 people.

The place was absolutely filthy, black carpets and grime smeared on the machines.

We didn't see a single person win on the claw machines and they were constantly occupied.

We spent about £40 and my son left with 2 keyrings, a very small Teddy and a handful of sweets. So the value of the prizes was very very poor! And the machines are crammed so tightly together that people end up shoving past you repeatedly.

The experience is really poor, it is inevitable that as the years pass, prices will rise, but this is an absolute pit of greed designed to give out the bare minimum.

I'm hoping that it's the impact Covid Regulations have had which has caused such a significant change in this venue and that with more consistent businesses it will return to its former glory and something which is...

Absolutely furious at this place, took my kids to play today to win some tickets, I myself got carried away on a deal or no deal machine that I got down to bonus reel or 15 tickets, it landed on bonus reel and the bonus reel span and landed on bonus pot meaning I had won the bonus pot which should have been 897 tickets only for nothing to come out, I must add when it landed on it the machine lit up and flashed and where is said 897 it changed to YOU for a few seconds, me and my boys jumped up with excitement the machine also said ‘next you could win the jackpot (2500 tickets)’ I reported to the workers who after speaking to for a while said that I hadn’t won, I asked them to check cameras as I know I had won and they said there are no cameras pointing at that particular machine (how convenient) they tried to imply that I could just be saying I won but I hadn’t actually won, with that I left very very angry and I will not be going back, it’s a shame as we take our boys down there quite regularly, but I refuse, absolutely refuse to be scammed like that, my boys were so upset. I would suggest to anyone who chooses to go to this arcade to record your whole experience as if you win bonus and it doesn’t pay out they won’t give you the winnings, I wish I had known this and I would have recorded and shoved it in their faces!!! Also it they brought out 3 men against one little woman (me) who wasn’t swearing or shouting or kicking off, just feeling very upset and let down, I felt very very intimidated. Not nice people not a nice place!! It’s not like you can get much with the tickets anyway but it was meant to be exciting for my boys,...