Help Get Vancouver's First Video Game Bar A Liquor License

Dec 19 2017, 1:51 pm

Well it looks like Vancouver’s fun police is at it again. While city hall continues to fight certain issues, it has to also start looking into the issue of this city’s archaic liquor laws. Case in point, the refusal to allow video games and liquor in the same establishment. Why the ban here and not in casino’s, which is also a form of gaming. EXP Restaurant and Bar is trying to bring Vancouver something unique, a  place to drink and play video games in a lounge setting. They need 10,000 signatures, Vancouver lets make this happen.

Excerpt from the petition page:

The LCLB has banned video games at our one-of-a-kind venue in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. EXP Restaurant + Bar (http://www.expbar.ca) has been trying to provide a gamer-centric city with a new venue to enjoy their hobby, craft, and passion for video games, but the liquor board has put a stop to that with an archaic law on entertainment. With the vague wording of ‘the use of gaming consoles outlined in red on the official floor plans is prohibited’, (the red line is our entire venue) we aren’t sure if smart phones, gaming tablets, laptops, or computers are affected and thus we might have to ban all electronic devices from our establishment for fear of being shut down. It is ridiculous, unfair, and near-sighted of them to apply this to our license.

The general manager has the ability to change this without a change in any legislation. We want to get the provision that bans gaming in our establishment lifted from our license.

That’s only step one.

With your support online, the local community liaisons, MLAs, game and tech companies, restaurateurs, liquor license holders, and other public figures, we hope to change the entire licensing process from 2 licenses (food primary and liquor primary) to a more robust, efficient, and fair system that holds public safety at the highest echelon of importance, rather than the totalitarian control on entertainment based on an out-dated policy.

We want Vancouver to stop being seen as the ‘no-fun city’ that it has become in large part because of the liquor regulations. They’ve made it a near-prohibition province, where only the richest companies can purchase other liquor primaries since new ones are impossible to obtain under regular means. There are no ‘pubs’ in Vancouver. There are only family restaurants with a light alcohol offering and night clubs. If you are from Vancouver, you may be shocked to ask your server the next time you are out what type of license they hold and how they operate. Vancouver City Hall and the LCLB need to work together to create new licenses that allow small business to grow and license holders to be open with how they operate their business. Let’s work together instead of against each other to combat the real issues: over-service and under-age drinking.

Please support us in our fight to change the liquor licensing process in BC.

We won’t ever give up on this idea; no one will crush our dreams.

We will post relevant links below as they come up and update as often as possible. Thank you so much for your support! Please share this campaign once you’ve signed it! 🙂

SIGN THE PETITION AND SPREAD THE WORD!

Link this to your Facebook wall, share it on twitter. Whatever you can do to reverse this wacky law is appreciated.

DH Vancouver StaffDH Vancouver Staff

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