Classic Mode

Play Meter

Issue: 1976 February - Vol 2 Num 2

Page 38 Text:

(Continuedjrompage 14)
company staff has to be checked by security, has to
be licensed by the gaming board, has to carry an
identity card which tells the brewer or hi licensee
that he i part of the organization. You can have no
criminal record, otherwise you could not be
employed by an operator :
And here again I
welcome the gaming board because they have
effectively controlled or have removed from our
industry the rather unpleasant inference that we
are all a lot of bandits.
PLA Y METER: Getting back to the commission
arrangements, if we may. How do they differ
between gaming machines and machines for
amu ement?
GROOM: A gaming machine or a fruit machine, as
you would know it i called over here amusement-
with -prize machine. The gaming board will make a
decree on the amount of payout. They will decide
what sort or jackpot if any is allowed.
PLA Y METER: What is the most you can win on a
jackpot?
GROOM: 40 pence. Thi is only in licen ed
premi es. In clubs it is a very different tate of
affairs.
PLAY METER: Club , meaning gambling ca inos?
GROOM: Clubs, meaning working mens club or
club with member hip only. I don't know too much
about that ide . You ee 95 per cent of our bu ine
i with the licen e trade. We are not really in the
club machine bu iness .
PLA Y METER: So the maximum jackpot allowed
in a tandard pub is 40 pence . What i the play
price?
GROOM: 5 Pence or 2112 pence.
GROOM: 5 pence or 2 1/2 pence .
PLAY METER: That i not much of a return i it?
GROOM: The gaming board allows a feature on the
machine which enable you once you have won to
play again and you could double it or you could
triple it . You could get up to five, six or even
time as much, purely on a 50 -50 chance.
PLAY METER: What limit do they impo e on the
payout percentage on fruit machines?
GROOM: On A WP machines, a coin or token which
can be reimbursed for goods over the counter.
PLAY METER: It doe n't take a coin then?
GROOM: It will payout a coin or a token or a
mixture.
PLA Y METER: And they can redeem the token
for prizes?
GROOM: That i right.
PLA Y METER: What is the allowable pe rcentag
of payout on tho e types of machines?
GROOM: The gaming board -hasn't actually tated
any particular point , but in general it i
recommended that most operator will work on a
pe rce ntage of payout between 75 to 85 per cent.
PLAY METER: But it is not regulated by law .
GROOM: It doe not have to be tated on t he
machine what the payout is, but with a club
machine, which i a ca h machine, by law it ha to
be stated on the machine what the percentage
payo ut i .
PLAY METER: How do they keep controls on that?
How do they keep the guy hone t, in other word ?
GROOM: The gaming board employs a number of
inspectors who will check machines.
46
PLAY METER: Let's get back to commiSSlOns.
How do you plit up the money? Do you go every
week, ,do you go once a week? Or do you go more
often than that?
GROOM: Again now, we are talking about fruit
machine or A WP's in licens ed premi e .
ollection are made weekly or fortnightly. By
gaming board law, we are only able to rent
machine to th lice n ee or to the brewer. Here you
will find it omewhat difficult because as against the
American y tern, we have here a sy tern of
ma naged hou e and tenanted houses.
Where they have managed hou es, the manager
may r eceive a com mi ion from the revenue from a
fruit machine. It depend entirely on hi own
policy, but by law we, the operator, can only
charge a fixed r ental.
PLA Y METER: Regardle of how much it take
in?
GROOM: Absolutely.
PLAY METER: That i why it is important for the
brewerie to hav e omeone to make s ure the
machine take in the most money po sible, right?
GROOM: It i putting the rig ht horse on t he right
cou r e in the right place. In the ca e of the tenant,
we, t he operator would get our rental and the
balance of revenue would be divided between the
brewer a nd hi tenant.
PLA Y METER: Ba ed on an arragnement t hey
have a lready mad .
GROOM: Ye , and thi varie .
PLA Y METER: Thi would be like an incentive for
the manager'?
GROOM: Well, it money.
PLAY METER: ure, but it is there. It' given to
him 0 that he will promote the play of t he game .
GROOM: Of cour e, he i a lot more intere ted in
the type of equipm nt upplied to him becau e he
tand to ben fit from the operation of the
machine.
PLA Y METER: What i the rental?
GROOM: The rental varie ,of cour e, with the typ
of machine he i upplied. Initially, one might ay
that the highe t rental machine i t he newe t
machine on th mark t, but not nece arily. There
ar many machine produced over her e and in the
tate which have very much more play appeal. A
two -year -old machine can atract much higher
r v nue becau e of it play appeal.
PLA Y METER: What determine the rental of an
A WP machine i act ually it purcha e price, rather
than the revenue'?
GROOM: I would ay the purchase pri and, of
cou r e, it newne . Then the r ental level i rapidly
Play appeal can be
fixed by it play appeal.
a e ed betw n on , two, or t hree month
becau of th revenue.
PLAY METER: I would imagine, al 0 that the
cometition would have omething to do with the
rental price?
GROOM: Every operator hope that they are going
to buy a machine that compete with th oppo ition.
PLAY METER: From a rental tandpoint, if he
want to beat the opposition, he's got to get a
mac hin e that i goi ng to produce more reve nue and
al 0 rent it at a lower cost?

Page 39 Text:

GROOM: More enlightened brewers recognize that
the rental factor i not the mo t important factor at
alL It i ,of cour e, th revenue because frequently,
th higher the rental the better the revenue . The
more killful the operator the better the way he
organize hi collectio n faciliti e and ervice and his
admini trative ability.
W have a very different ituation in the UK now
compared to 5,7 or eight years ago. We now
require experti e. The brewer simply looked at
the ituation and aid, "look, money for nothing."
ow they are recognizing that there i an awful lot
of money to be made and s hould have been made by
u ing killed operator .
PLA Y METER: They are making more money than
they ever made before and th yare realizing the
imm nse ca h value in the machine, wherea
b for th y kind of neglected it?
GROOM: Ten year ago, the fruit machine or the
juk box operator walked through the back door of
the brewer a nd he was the man who wa producing
for them thou and of pounds a year.
Why?
Becau e he wa
till not con idered terribly
re pectable.
PLAY METER: But it i chaging i n't it?
GROOM: It' changing now.
PLA Y METER: orne operator till walk out the
back door.
GROOM: I think mo t of u walk out the back door.
PLA Y METER: What would you ay the tandard
A WP fruit machine would rent for new?
GROOM: I would ay omewhere within the region
of 11 pound per week now though it hould be in
th region of 13 pound per week.
PLA Y METER: Will it ever get to that level?
GROOM: It will have to b because overhead over
here i ri ing 0 rapidly we are in a tate of
hyp rinflation. We are paying higher petrol co t ,
higher alarie and the brewer i looking to us to
produce more revenue in a time when there i not
perhap the arne amount of ca h flow going
t hroug h t he eq uipment, wheth r it be a jukebox or
a fruit machine.
PLA Y METER: How do you plan to go about
rai ing it from 11 to 13?
GROOM: Well thi can only b done by changing
your quipment on the ite, by introducing new
machin ,by injecting, -if you like, ecurity check ,
by be oming thoroughly more efficient.
PLA Y METER: Do you think you could ell the
br wer on that?
GROOM: Ye , the more enlightened brewer , yes.
PLA Y METER: What i your commi ion arrange-
ment on other game? On fruit machine ,a we
aid before, it ha to be a straight rental.
GROOM: It ha to b by law .
PLA Y METER: Doe that apply to amu ement
machine , Meaning anything but a gambling
device?
GROOM: A pin table by law has to be on rental. A
jukebox of cour e i an e ntire ly different thing.
Here we work on a divi ion of profitability becau e I
beli ve it take a much more killful operator to
op rate jukeboxes than a fruit machine man
becau e if you don't put the rig ht records on the
juk box, they aren't going to buy it. With mu ic
they ar pay ing for omething, wherea omeone
PlAt' Itf£TER
who goe to a fruit machine i hoping to win.
PLAY METER: What, then, is a commission
arrangement on a jukebox?
GROOM: On a jukebox most enlightened companies
will charge what i called rental, which varie from
four to eight pound per week and a division of the
balanc 50/ 50. Where you have a managed house,
the re nt money i retained by us and in most cases a
commi ion i paid to the manager, which can range
between five and 10 per cent the balance goes to the
brewer.
PLAY METER: Do the Brewers tend to favor the
fruit machine over the ordinary amusement
machine?
GROOM: Ye , they do and I think this is wrong.
Fruit machine are more profitable in the fact that
t hey attract more revenue, but I believe that music
i an entirely different thing because there is an
indirect ben fit which i not always recognized by
the brewer. A hou e that is run with good music
will attract trade to the hou e. If the music is lousy,
the wet ale, the beer sales or the gin sales are
low r .
PLA Y METER: Do the brewers see it that way?
GROOM: The more enlightened ones certainly do.
PLA Y METER: Are they beginning to realize the
improtance of coin -operated mu ic entertainment?
GROOM: Indeed they are. They will have the more
efficient firm rather than the ones that come in
with ch ap cutrate prices .
PLA Y METER: How much doe it cost to play one
ong on one of you jukeboxe ?
GROOM: On average today it is five pence (10
c nt ) for a ingle play and 10 pence gets three
play.
PLA Y METER: Are you going to try and change
that? It eem a little low?
GROOM: It ha got to come up. We have to start
getting more becau e we have to pay performing
right fe .
PLA Y METER: What doe that amount to?
GROOM: On average we are paying something like
15 pound to 20 pounds per annum for the privelege
of upplying music to a place where there is music.
PLA Y METER: Is that 15 or 20 pounds per machine
per year?
GROOM: Yes, per machine. That is currently being
examin d by the performing rights society and
phonographic performance . We are threatened
with a 400 per cent increase in charge.
PLA Y METER: What are the chance of that going
through?
GROOM: It will reduce the earning of the brewer
o much that I am sure they will combine with us to
fig ht again t these rediculous claims for increase in
fee.
PLA Y METER: I the commi ion arragnement the
arne with a pinball machine and a video game?
GROOM: With video game I think mo t operator
divide 50/ 50.
PLA Y METER: What i the general feeling
pre ntly with re pect to video game?
GROOM: I feel video game are possibly best used
by the mailer operator, who can give very much
more per onal attention to the requirements of the
it .
PLAY METER: Do you ee much of a future for
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