The Mayo News

A newly-opened casino in Castlebar could be forced to close in the coming weeks.
Council may seek injunction against new Castlebar casino

Michael Duffy

A newly-opened casino in Castlebar could be forced to close in the coming weeks if Castlebar Town Council decide to seek a court injunction.
Castlebar town clerk Marie Crowley told The Mayo News this week that the local authority is currently looking into the legality of the Castle Casino, which opened in Unit 1 of McHale Business Park last Friday night.
“We were aware some time ago that this casino was about to open and we spoke to the developer, advising him that he would need planning permission. However, that was some months back and it now appears that the casino has opened so we are now looking into the situation from a planning perspective,” said Ms Crowley, who added that the only way the Council could have stopped the casino operating last weekend was by obtaining an injunction.
“We would have had to go to the courts to get an injunction but this is something we will be considering into the future,” said the town clerk.
It is believed that the Council does not consider a casino to be a retail development and therefore a change of use planning permission would be needed. The unit where the casino is located was formerly a toy store run by Toymaster and only has permission for retail use.
The Castle Casino placed large advertisements in the local press and also dropped leaflets in many businesses around Castlebar and neighbouring Westport in advance of the opening on Friday.
The leaflets originally stated that a ‘late bar’ was on offer at the premises but these words on the leaflets have now been blacked out with marker.
Sixty players sat for a game of Texas Hold’em on Friday night with an entry fee of €25 each.
The proprietor of the Castle Casino is Niall Mulholland and he has stated that as far as he is concerned his club ‘fully complies with all current legislation governing such forms of gaming in Ireland’.
He proposes to open at 9pm from Wednesday to Sunday and offer games such as popular card game Texas Hold’em and casino games such as blackjack, roulette and stud poker.
Gardaí paid a visit to the casino on the opening night, shortly after it opened, for what they described as a ‘familiarisation visit’.
“We wanted to make sure that everything was in order, that no drink was being served and that the customers weren’t being admitted if they had consumed too much alcohol,” said a Garda spokesperson.
“It is like any new venue that opens in that we wanted to get to know who is running the place and what the set-up is and make sure it is a professional operation. We were not responding to a call and while we are carrying out our own investigations into what the situation is regarding licences, it seems that this is a legitimate operation in that regard.
“We weren’t there to close the casino down. You can only do that if it is illegal.”
The opening of the Castle Casino takes place just two weeks after The Mayo News exclusively revealed plans by Mr Michael Murray to lodge a change of use planning application seeking to open a casino on Linenhall Street in Castlebar, besides Rocky’s Bar.
Ms Crowley confirmed that the Council has received the application from Mr Murray of 4 Aces Casino on Dominick Street in Galway but it has not yet been validated by the Council.

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