UK analogue industry under threat?

[kidgloves]

Looks like the troops are assembling.....

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[Lemon]

Bacta always lay it on thick when its members are facing legislation they don't want. Now suddenly all these operators from showmen families that go back generations are not going to be able to feed and clothe their families because they're being made to throw a few Bar-X's in a skip. They've got an argument but the way they plead poverty all the time when they oppose something really fucking grates.

"That Party Time Arena with one slave I can't get parts for, and those two Clockwork Oranges with yellow reels and barely any working lamps have been my bread-and-butter for over 20 years - if they go I'm out on the street..."

Barely anyone makes reel-based stuff any more because there isn't a market for it, so those games are going to die out soon anyway as barely any of it gets supported - there's just Reflex left doing analogue stuff, maybe Fair Games as well. I think the main reason operators want to keep it is because without it they've got too much floor-space in their arcades and they'll have to spend serious money to fill it - and they can't buy three DONDs for £295 from the back of Coin Slot any more.

The UKGC want everything to be digital with a nice easy audit papertrail built in. Every AGC will be filled with the same cabs on 5-year contracts that new games are uploaded to each month in time for payday. We'll be left with SG, Blueprint, Novomatic and Inspired cabinets everywhere and it will be a closed shop - the likes of Innov8 and Reflex will be squeezed off the floor and bought out by one of the aforementioned 'big four' if they've got any IP worth paying for.

Operators fighting to keep a few Bar-X 7's and various Party Time/Bullion Bars derivatives on their floors feels a bit like two bald men fighting over a comb, and Bacta fighting to keep a dying category alive even though none of the major manufacturers give a shit about it any more makes them look stuck in the past.

 

[k6kaysix]

In all the years the current land based 'responsible gambling' popup nonsense has been implemented

People I've seen choosing to set a custom money / time limit : 0
People I've seen select the cash out and stop playing button when the popup appears : 0

The bookies are now quite hot in that from what I've heard they'll only allow you to play one machine so they can keep track of your dosh and their (no disrespect intended here) minimum wage staff are forced to intervene at certain points e.g. £500 in to gather some details from you and ask if you're OK, if the arcades are forced to follow suit they might as well just turn off the lights for good

I know gambling can be an addiction but all these measures achieve precisely sod all when you can walk out of one venue and straight into another after that long <1 minute walk in between!

 

[jasonuk]

Adding the same caveat as before that it's a random website with minimal provenance (and one that can't spell GAMSTOP correctly). If someone has a link to a more reputable source that would be appreciated.

I can see BACTA using legacy machines as a "shield" to try and protect against further regulations - because the type of monitoring that would come in is likely to heavily impact some of their client base (the "whales").

If, as previously mused, we're talking about 2007+ machines, then there could be options (such as lowering them to category C or D) but they would argue that it is floor space "wasted" with lower jackpot machines (at 10p per spin rather than 30p/50p/£1).

As lemon mentioned above, the reality is that they'd rather have AWPs at 72-80% which they can buy for cheap, than "FOBTs" at 90%+ they have to rent for extended periods.

The bookies are now quite hot in that from what I've heard they'll only allow you to play one machine so they can keep track of your dosh and their (no disrespect intended here) minimum wage staff are forced to intervene at certain points e.g. £500 in to gather some details from you and ask if you're OK, if the arcades are forced to follow suit they might as well just turn off the lights for good

As you say, the yellow screens are more likely to be activated in error rather than used for their intended purpose.

This is why they wanted the single customer view (SCV) for online sites - a privacy nightmare of data that operators would use to ban winning players for responsible gambling purposes.

It would have solved the "hoppers" playing across multiple sites, but more likely would have pushed people to the high seas because it'll be a matter of when they get smacked with paperwork demands rather than if at that point. The new GAMPROTECT program will probably have a similar outcome as you're banned from one "for SE purposes" and you're banned from all without meaningful appeal.