Weekender: £30m casino marks first anniversary

Leeds-based Victoria Gate Casino has celebrated its first birthday with more than 3,000 guests in attendance at an extravagant party to mark the occasion.

The £30 million leisure and gaming venue is the UK’s third largest casino. It employs more than 200 people and has entertained almost half a million customers in its first year.

Victoria Gate Casino invited guests to celebrate its first anniversary in an evening of entertainment and live music from Head Over Heels and DJ Fozz.

The evening saw thousands attend the casino where they were greeted by Illusio Magic, stilt walkers, glitter face painters, games and much more.

VIP guests enjoyed canapes and fizz whilst hearing from Victoria Gate Casino’s managing director, Patrick Noakes, outline the casino’s accomplishments to date:

“We are thrilled to have celebrated our first birthday in style and it was great to welcome so many guests into the casino to toast to our first year in business.

“Since opening our doors back in January 2017, we have seen a really positive reaction from the people of Leeds, and so it was brilliant to share our success with many of them at our birthday party.

“We have a whole host of exciting events coming up this year and we look forward to building on a fantastic 2017 with continued success and growth in 2018.”

The first birthday event was promoted by a Golden Ticket-style treasure hunt around Leeds City Centre on the day before, which saw participants following clues on social media to find one of 50 tickets which equated to prizes, including one cash prize worth £250.

The treasure hunt, which used the hashtag #VGCBirthday, created a buzz across the city, with hundreds of members of the public running between the locations to find the golden tickets. With the campaign trending locally on Twitter, the clues received huge levels of engagement across Victoria Gate Casino’s social media platforms.

As part of the promotional stunt, Victoria Gate Casino also arranged for a hostess in an eight-foot cocktail glass to be positioned on Briggate, dancing to a birthday playlist to inform the people of Leeds about the party which took place the following day.

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