Recent changes in legislation mean such businesses have had to reduce their gaming machine stakes and the number of machines.

Peter Hargreaves, managing director of Stylus Sports Ltd, which runs the Deluxe Bingo Club on Hastings Pier, said: "The Bingo Club and Family Amusement Arcade have been severely hit by the recent changes in legislation following the introduction of the new Gaming Act.

"Last year we invested £500,000 of our profits into engineering works to improve the structure of the pier, which enabled it to re-open last July.

"The restrictions placed upon us by the new legislation will make it very hard, if not impossible, for us to trade through next winter, and therefore further investment in the pier structure may not be possible.

"We need Hastings visitors and residents to support our arcade, Bar Luxor and Bingo Club in order that we may invest in the future survival of Hastings Pier."

Amber Rudd, Conservative parliamentary candidate for Hastings and Rye, said she had spoken to arcade owners in the town who told her they were 'very concerned'.

She said: "A green light has been given to hard-core gambling, while safer forms of entertainment are being harshly treated.

"Seaside arcades, bingo halls and high street arcades are seeing a collapse in their income.

"New laws have reduced gaming machine stakes and the number of machines that these arcades can have.

"There has been a rise in problem gambling from betting offices as a result of controversial new 'fixed odds betting terminals' and of online gambling.

"Gaming arcade businesses are often family-owned, passed down from generation to generation and are the lifeblood of many seaside economies which rely heavily on tourism."

Hastings MP Michael Foster said that he had sympathy with Bingo Hall owners who were affected and had signed a Parliamentary Motion to that effect.

He said: "In adult environments such as bingo halls there should be choice and the restriction on the number of machines does seem unnecessary.

"I am pleased the Government has agreed to look at this issue again."

On the wider issue of sea front arcades the MP said: "When this matter came before Parliament I thought that both parties agreed that young people must be protected.

"Indeed the Tories did not vote against the Government's Bill at Third Reading, they did not oppose it.

"One particular provision reduced the maximum stake on gaming machines from £2 to £1 and restricted the number of these high value machines.

"I think that was the right thing to do. I think it is different in an adult environment such as a Bingo Hall but for the Tories to now be campaigning for £2 stake machines in an open environment where young people have access is fundamentally mistaken.

"It is my understanding that these high stake machines were never available in places open to children and if the Tories thought this through they may want to jump off this particular bandwagon."