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SCMP Reporter

First it was a bank, then cakes. Yesterday, Hong Kong's latest 'run' was on Whimsy amusement arcades.

 Frantic customers queued to exchange coupons for toys and other trinkets fearing the company, with links to the bankrupt Yaohan department store group, was about to close.

 On Monday, thousands of people rushed to Saint Honore Cake Shops to cash in coupons, fearing the chain was also about to close because of Yaohan links.

 Connie Leung For-kiu, 33, who had 20,000-plus Whimsy prize coupons, said friends told her the games centres were closing.

 'After I saw all those people rushing for cakes, I wanted to play safe. I didn't want to be left with nothing. I've been saving these tickets for almost a year,' she said at Whimsy's Causeway Bay centre.

 Yaohan International Holdings has a 29.36 per cent stake in Whimsy Entertainment, but a company spokesman denied it faced financial problems.

 He said the firm was financially healthy and it was planning to open a new mega-arcade in Tsuen Wan before Christmas.

  The company pledged to keep its 22 game centres open late as long as customers were queueing to redeem their coupons.

  It posted statements at all its centres denying outlets might close.

 But Ms Leung, who had waited nearly two hours to exchange her tickets for cheap electrical goods, remained sceptical.

 'I don't trust that statement. Yaohan said similar things before closing down,' she said. A Whimsy worker said the rush of people trying to exchange coupons had built up since Friday.

 The centres had closed two hours later, at midnight, on Monday to satisfy demand.

 Restaurant worker Jojo Wong Yuk-fong, 23, said she had rushed to the Whimsy centre because she had heard others were queueing.

 She said she could keep the gifts and give them to her friend's children. 'It's better than nothing.'  One customer queued to exchange a staggering 70,000 tickets for a television set.

 'I can't remember how much I've spent to win these tickets. I think it must work out at about $1 for every five tickets,' said the man, who called himself Mr Tong.



Whimsical fun and games as arcade fans run scared