Leo Casino

Gambling’s a funny old thing. To an outsider it can look like people moving discs around, pressing buttons or looking at bits of card, like footage from some outlawed 1950s psychological experiment. When you’re taking part though and things are going your way, it can feel like you’re winning at life itself.
Leo’s Casino is a visually lavish building with a great stretch of glass looking out over the River Mersey, an unexpectedly majestic sight at dusk. However, due to the intrinsic naffness of gambling, the place falls short. You’re not going to see Bond striding through, tuxed to the eyeballs. This isn’t Vegas.
Leo’s also isn’t as big as you’d expect, with only one floor hosting all the main games. The croupiers are very helpful and friendly, sensing my cluelessness a mile off and explaining everything, but not bleeding me dry like their job description probably demanded.
The walls are cluttered with slot machines but in my opinion these are pointless. It’s much more enjoyable to sit at a table with strangers and watch your Everest of chips whittle its way down to one, which you swallow to stop yourself betting any more.
Just me then?

Leo’s is the swankiest Casino in Liverpool. It’s situated on the Dock Road and its roulette tables overlook the river Mersey. It looks elegant and fluorescent at night, lit up with big blue lights and looking like a venue that oozes money. Of course it does, it’s a casino!
They have two floors, and offer blackjack tables, poker tables, roulette tables and an array of £2000 jackpot digital slot machines. They are open 24 hours and offer free toasties and hot drinks to all members whilst they play the tables.
When you join, you get £10 in free plays to use on the roulette tables. However, this money can only be used to bet on colours or odds/​evens. The croupiers are chatty and professional and the place can have a good an exciting vibe when you’re winning. On the flipside, there’s nothing quite like losing £50 at the spin of a wheel to make you feel like hell!

As the first casino I ever had membership to, this will always be my favourite. When it was built with its impressive glass walls everyone thought it was posh and exciting and it was a bit of a status symbol to go there. I wonder if it’s still like that?
I started gambling when I was a dating a guy who lived in the prestigious Quay apartments round the corner, and at the time I was 18 and impressed. So me and the guys would go to Leo, and I was left in charge of the credit cards, being the most trustworthy in the group. I remember one of the guys begging me for his Visa after about 30 minutes claiming that if he just got another £50 out he could win back the several hundred he’d just lost. Not wanting to be mean, I’d usually go to the cashpoint with him and allow him £20, arguing that if he couldn’t win back anything on that it was tough and at least he hadn’t lost another £50.
For my part, I managed to break even more often than not. I’d do ok on the roulette because I made safe bets and then take my winnings on to the blackjack tables. By this point I was usually tipsy and usually lose everything but my last fiver. That was when the guys would come over and give me drunken tips, and I’d end up ok, or at least enough so that we could go for a few drinks on the money.
Ah, those were the good old days. Not long after that one of the guys got worried that he had a gambling addiction and cut up his membership. We only went once or twice a week — that’s normal, right? It’s a cool place to go and providing the décor hasn’t become too shabby over the years, quite a posh night out. Just make sure you know what you’re doing — there’s no shame in being an observer and holding on to your money!