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COVID 19 Period Use of Gaming Room General Policy

Aims

This policy is intended to ensure that customers are safely able to use the gaming facilities for organised events, whilst complying with the current Welsh Government guidance and regulations regarding social distancing, and meeting people indoors.

Responsibilities

Customers are responsible for their own compliance with these procedures, and repeated failure to abide by these procedures (or deliberate flaunting of them) will invalidate their entry to the gaming room and result in them being required to leave immeditately with no refund by a member of staff.

Staff are responsible for supervising customer adherence to this policy, managing customer movements around the gaming area, providing table-service to customers and for ensuring that floor markings are maintained and correctly explained to customers.

Arrival at the store

Customers should aim to arrive no more than 10 minutes before the start of their session. We would ask that customers queue outside the store (towards the black railings), maintaining social distancing whilst in the queue. A staff member will come and call you in when it is time for your session to begin.

On arrival, each customer will need to scan a QR code with their phone to check into the NHS-Covid-19 App.

They will also need to provide us with their full name, address details, and contact telephone number if they have not already done so when booking their place at the event (e.g. if on person has paid for 2 entries, the 2nd person would need to provide their contact details on arrival, but we would already have the booker's details on file.

Staff will lead customers to their table and provide a copy of these procedures for reference.

General Principles

- No more than 15 customers may be in the gaming rooms at any one time, and they may only attend by pre-booking one of the available slots for specific organised activities. No walk-ins.

Customers will only be able to use the gaming room, they will not be able to browse the store.

Whilst in the gaming rooms, customers should remain a socially distanced 2m away from all other customers. For the avoidance of confusion and to simplify compliance, even customers who are part of the same household or extended-household are expected to comply with this requirement whilst in the gaming room.

Where sneeze-screens have been provided, customers are able to sit closer than 2m apart face-to-face, provided always that they keep the screen directly between them and the person they are sitting opposite.

A maximum of 2 customers may use a single table at any one time, no spectators.

Customers should refrain from touching anyone else's belongings. They may only handle their own property.

Whilst in the gaming rooms, customers are expected to remain seated (or remain stood at their long-table edge in the case of war-gamers), and must not wander around the area.

If a customer needs to leave their assigned seat/space (e.g. to go to the toilet), they should attract the attention of the staff member on duty who will ensure the accessways are clear to permit the movement. If no staff member is present, then customers should use their mobile-phone to ring the desk on 01792 930328 instead.

If a customer wishes to purchase snacks or drinks, they should attract the attention of the staff member on duty and place their order with them. All snacks/drinks will be brought to the table by a member of staff, and placed on an individual tab which must be paid for at the end of the gaming session. Customers must remain seated whilst eating and drinking.

At the end of a gaming session, customers should pack their belongings and wait for the staff member on duty to instruct them to leave. Customers will leave one at a time to facilitate social distancing at the store entrance/exits.

Windows will be open where possible to provide increased ventilation to the gaming room. This will meant that the gaming room is likely to be colder than usual.

Specifics

For Wargamers, due to the width of the tables, it will be necessary for one player to stand back from the table whilst the other player is taking their turn. Silver-taped lines have been provided to indicate the required move-back distance. If there is no silver-taped line, then customers should move back to the wall instead. Please be aware of the movements of customers at other tables, as in some portions of the gaming room, there is limited room for two adjacent tables to move back on the same side at the same time.

Wargamers will be provided with scenery already laid out on their table. Should they require any scenery to be moved/changed they should ask a member of staff to make the changes for them.

Wargamers should refrain from touching the scenery during the course of their game, and should notify the staff at the end of the session if any scenery was touched, so that staff can quarrantine it for 72 hours.

For TCG players, please see the additional section below on the procedure for TCG Tournaments and changes of round/opponent.

When taking customers to their tables, staff should remind the customers which set of floor markings applies to their session. Generally this will be silver-tape for Wargaming events and black-tape for TCG events.

Whilst the gaming room is in use, a member of staff should be present for the majority of the time to ensure that customers are comply with this procedure, and to provide assistance and reminders to help customers to do so. The member of staff undertaking this role should be rotated regularly from amongst the staff members on duty to reduce their exposure time.

When both floors of the gaming rooms are in use, staff should make a regular round between each floor to ensure equal coverage and oversight.

If it is not possible to have a staff member present for the majority of the time, then the staff member on duty on the shop floor should make a check-in circuit of both floors at least once every half-hour, temporarily closing the shop-front (with appropriate signage) to do so. In this case, customers will need to be instructed to use phones to call the desk for table service etc.

Staff should pay particular attention to the movement of customers, as all staircases are too narrow to permit people to maintain social distancing and pass each other. Staff should communicate with the shop floor to advise when customers are about to descend the stairs, and shop floor staff should verify that there is a clear exit route available prior to the next customer descending.

If a customer breaches the requirements above by accident, they should be reminded of the requirements and warned that repeated breaches will invalidate their entry. If they continue to forget the requirements after being reminded, they should be asked to leave. The customer will be welcome to rebook and return to a different session on another day.

If a customer deliberately breaches the requirements above, they should be asked to leave immediately, and details of the incident passed to a manager at the earliest opportunity. The manager will decide whether to allow that customer to book for future events, or whether they should be excluded from in-store play whilst restrictions are in force.

TCG Events - Additional Procedures

Aims

This policy is intended to ensure that customers are safely able to use the gaming facilities for organised events, whilst complying with the current Welsh Government guidance and regulations regarding social distancing, and meeting people indoors. It provides additional guidance for Trading Card Game events and should be read in conjuntion with HSC19002.

Responsibilities

Customers are responsible for their own compliance with these procedures, and repeated failure to abide by these procedures (or deliberate flaunting of them) will invalidate their entry to the gaming room and result in them being required to leave immeditately with no refund by a member of staff.

Staff are responsible for supervising customer adherence to this policy, managing customer movements around the gaming area and overseeing the running of the event and pairing of opponents.

Arrival Seating

As customers will have pre-booked for the event, the first round pairings should be calculated prior to the start of the session using the relevant software if possible. This way, customers can be seated at the appropriate table to face their round 1 opponent.

Where pre-pairing is not possible (e.g. Keyforge), customers should be seated in arrival order, and then the round-change procedure followed once round 1 pairings are ready.

Round-Change

At the end of a round, customers should remain seated. The staff member will come to each table to collect the results. If customers finish their games before the round time expires, they attract the attention of a member of staff, who will come and take their results.

Once results have been collected Customers should collect together all of their belongings ready to move to their next seat.

A member of staff will provide each customer with an anti-bacterial wipe. Customers are requested to wipe down the area of table that they have been playing at, prior to moving to their next seat.

The staff member will bring a bin around for used wipes to be placed into by customers.

The staff member will then anounce the pairings for the next round, one table at a time. The first customer called will remain seated at the same table. Their opponent from the previous round will move out of the way to the space indicated by the member of staff, and their new opponent will then move take the seat vacated. This step will be repeated until everyone is seated with their new opponent,

In the event of an uneven number of entrants resulting in a bye, the customer with the bye that round should remain seated at a table by themselves for the duration of the round.

Event End

At the end of the event, the member of staff will announce the results, and will bring prizes and participation promos (if applicable) to each customer. Customers will then be directed to leave one-at-a-time by the member of staff, who will communicate with the shop floor to ensure a clear exit route is available.

COVID 19 Period In Store Cleaning Policy

Aims

This policy aims to minimise the risk of COVID 19 transmission for staff and customers through surface contacts, by enhancing the cleaning regime in store, both at the start and end of each day, and during opening hours.

Responsibilities

Each member of staff will be responsible for ensuring their own compliance with these procedures. Wilful non-compliance with these measures will be a matter for disciplinary action. Staff are also required to use their best efforts to ensure that customers comply with the procedures that relate to them.

Hand Washing / Hand Sanitiser

Staff are instructed to wash their hands far more frequently than usual, for at least 20 seconds using soap and water. There is also hand sanitiser provided for use. It is recommended that staff use the hand sanitiser;

  • as soon as they arrive at work
  • prior to serving each customer
  • after handling any cash from a customer (or products which customers have touched)
  • after receiving any deliveries or UPS drop offs
  • after any cough/sneeze
  • after their touching mouth/eyes/nose

Opening Clean

Staff should make sure that all customer facing areas and surfaces are well cleaned with antibacterial surface cleaner, with special attention being paid to chip and pin machines and door handles.

They should check that public handwash dispensers have sufficient reserves, and ensure that all touchpoints on the dispensers are throughly cleaned.

Once the Gaming Rooms have been laid out ready for the day's organised events (this may be a 2-staff task), the surface of each table, and of each sneeze-screen should also be cleaned with antibacterial surface cleaner, as should the metalic portions of each chair.

Staff should ensure that each of the customer toilets (bowl, seant and lid) is bleach-cleaned. Flush handles, Sinks, taps, sanitary-bins and hand dryers are to be cleaned with antibacterial surface cleaner. Each toilet should then be re-stocked with toilet rolls.

Staff should also ensure that they clean the keyboard/mouse, touchscreen, scanner and cash-drawer of each workstation, the telephone, and also the sales counter surfaces.

Normal hoovering of all three floors is to be carried out daily, including staff-side of the sales-counter and back office/staff toilet area.

Bins should be emptied daily, with recycling sorted into the corrrect zones for disposal.

In-Session Cleaning

Whilst the store is open, staff should make sure that they clean the sales-counter regularly, and the chip and pin machine after each use of the keypad.

If the gaming rooms are in use, then the toilets should have all surfaces wiped down with antibacterial surface cleaner at regular intervals, and bins should be checked and emptied if necessary. Additionally, the complete toilet cleaning routine should be repeated between gaming sessions.

If the gaming rooms are in use, then the table surfaces, chairs and sneeze-screens should be cleaned between sessions. Customers participating in TCG events should be encouraged to wipe their chair/table with the provided antibacterial wipes at the end of each round (see Procedure for TCG Round Changes policy).

Closing Clean

Once all of the cashing up etc. has been carried out, Staff should make sure that all customer facing areas and surfaces are again well cleaned with antibacterial surface cleaner, with special attention being paid to chip and pin machines and door handles.

Staff should also ensure that they clean the keyboard/mouse, touchscreen, scanner and cash-drawer of each workstation, the telephone, and also the sales counter surfaces before locking up and leaving.

Recording of Cleaning

Staff are required to record the cleaning that they have carried out, by initialling the cleaning daily checklist for the appropriate tasks carried out during their shift. Multiple staff members may complete different sections over the course of a day.

Completed daily cleaning checklists should be put in the pigeon-hole on Simon's desk at the end of the day. They will be filed and retained for an appropriate period, in case we need to refer to them in the event of an infection incident.

Falsification of cleaning checklists will be a serious disciplinary matter, which will result in immediate dismissal.

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