Issues Affecting Machine Income
Mark S. Elliott has spent 25 years working in various management roles within the tenanted and leased divisions of the UK's largest breweries and pub companies. His extensive knowledge and day-to-day involvement with pubs and publicans make him well qualified to know what is required to run a successful pub. He shares his knowledge and many 'insider tips' with you in this book. Mark is based in Cockermouth, Cumbria.
ISSUES AFFECTING MACHINE INCOME
Over the last few years, income from pub AWP machines has been under pressure from the growing popularity of other forms of gambling. Many hardcore gamers have switched from pub AWPs to other ways of gambling which offer higher payouts. The result has been an overall decline in the amount of money gambled in pub AWP machines and a consequent reduction in machine income for many licensees. Though there are calls to increase payouts of pub AWP machines to make them more attractive to gamers, the attraction of other forms of gambling remains very strong. Some of these other forms of gambling are discussed below.
FOBTs
Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) are a recent phenomenon which have been installed in betting shops, and have become very popular. FOBTs have ‘touch-screen’ terminals and look similar to quiz machines found in pubs and clubs. They offer a number of games, with roulette being the most popular, and maximum prizes of £ 500, which far exceed that of traditional AWP machines. Many bookmakers claim that revenue generated from FOBTs now exceeds traditional over-the-counter gambling. Pubs located close to betting shops are likely to feel the impact more than those located further away.
On-line gambling
There has been a huge expansion of internet-based gambling over recent years with an estimated 1,800 websites devoted to on-line gambling. Although on-line gambling still tends to attract a small percentage of overall gamblers, there is evidence that it is becoming more mainstream, and may well be luring some traditional pub AWP gamers. The Gambling Act 2005 allows internet casinos (previously outlawed) to be based in Great Britain for the first time.
Expansion of casino facilities
The Gambling Act 2005 allows for an increase in the number of UK casinos. (There were 140 casinos operating in 2006.) New legislation allows for the introduction of regional casinos, which could be up to 10 times the size of many existing casinos, along with a further 8 large and 8 small casinos.
Although figures for 2004 show that casino gambling is undertaken by a small percentage of the population (3% of men and 1% of women had played table games in a casino over the last 12 months: Gambling Commission website ), changes in legislation in 2005, allowing casinos to operate without membership restrictions and increases in machine payouts, have caused an upsurge in casino attendance. The full impact on pub gaming machine income is yet to be predicted.
