Coventry Street is getting its anchor back. Genting is opening a casino, restaurant and bar inside the Trocadero this October, converting the 37,000 square feet of space that has sat largely empty since Funland closed in 2011. Westminster City Council approved the plans last autumn, and the building work is now in its final stages behind the hoarding.
From Grand Restaurant to SegaWorld to a Gaming Floor
The Trocadero opened in 1896 as a restaurant, spent decades as a cinema, and then became SegaWorld in 1996, Europe’s flagship arcade. Plenty of Londoners still remember the long escalator ride up into the noise and flashing lights, a story told well in Time Out’s look back at the venue. Funland followed, running until 2011, and the building has been largely quiet since. The Bubba Gump restaurant on the ground floor closed in 2019. The Opium nightclub in the basement followed. What opens in October is a two-floor casino with a 16,000 square foot gaming floor, a 75-seat restaurant, capacity for 1,250 guests and 24-hour operation. The Grade II-listed façade stays intact, and new shopfronts on Coventry Street and Rupert Street are part of the plan.
The building also spent time as a cinema before SegaWorld arrived in 1996. At its peak it drew visitors from across the country, families and teenagers making a day of the arcade the way a previous generation had gone to the seaside. Funland was a scaled-down version of that, running until 2011, and the years since have been quiet ones for this stretch of Coventry Street.
The licence is Crockfords, Genting’s famous private members club on Curzon Street, which closed in 2023 after 195 years. That licence is moving from one of the most exclusive rooms in Mayfair to one of the busiest corners of the West End. Genting is bringing approximately 350 hospitality jobs to the site, and the venue is designed for a broad 25-plus crowd rather than members-only clientele.
Online Free Spins Offer the Walk-In Equivalent of What Genting Is Building
The accessible entry point is built into the design. Slots tend to be the easiest way in for a first-time visitor: no table rules to learn, a spin can cost very little, and it is easy to stop after a few goes. Top free spin casino offers online follow that logic: a handful of spins on a chosen slot lets someone try a casino without putting much money at risk, which is exactly how a lot of people decide whether casino games suit them at all.
The terms attached to those online offers deserve a closer look than the headline number. Winnings from free spins usually come with wagering requirements, cashout limits and short expiry windows. Thirty spins with fair rules can be worth more than a hundred with heavy strings attached, so reading the small print before claiming anything pays off.
A Crockfords Licence in a Coventry Street Venue
The transfer of the Crockfords licence is the detail that makes this opening unusual. Crockfords had operated continuously in Mayfair since 1828, attracting a very specific kind of gambler at a very specific price point. Putting that licence inside the Trocadero, which Genting is positioning as a walk-in entertainment venue, is a significant shift in how the brand presents itself.
As we have covered in the context of the wider Leicester Square casino quarter, the Trocadero is part of a broader clustering of gaming venues around this part of central London. The October opening gives that cluster its most prominent address and its most visible frontage, on a street that most West End visitors pass through at some point during an evening.
The Trocadero is still behind hoarding, with the October opening date holding for now. Whether visitors come for the restaurant, the tables or a first spin on the gaming floor, the venue is built to make that first step an easy one.
