FORUM

Looks just like a Coventry auction (but with more artwork ).

Top one is the Isle of Man casino before opening, 2nd is a funfair in Wakefield 1970

ill add them to the lists on the penny-machines.info site if its ok with you?

Can anyone name all the machines in the second photo around the rear wall? I think I can name 7, but certainly struggling with one the two people are playing on the left.

Clement & Whales Commercial or Greyhounds?

Twilight of the seaside amusement arcade
Interesting to learn that Barron's Paradium on Marine Parade, Great Yarmouth which opened in 1902 is believed to be Britain's first dedicated amusement arcade. In 2007 it became a heritage museum called 'Yesterday's World' and included a vintage amusement arcade until closing in 2014.

Dr Chapman appears to be yet another academic out of touch with the real reason the amusement industry is in terminal decline.
Yet again no mention in the report of the impact of the change in the law in 2007 allowing the bookmakers a spectacular advantage over amusement arcades, to operate fixed odds betting terminal machines (programmes written themselves and no policing of the design or play or percentage control by the Gambling Commission). From day one of the change in the law bookmakers allowed to offer £2 a spin (and up to £100 bet on the same spin) at roulette and on the same day forcing amusement arcades top machines to reduce to £1 a spin with no multi bet. Additionally, arcade top machines had to be strictly enforced 'random' 92% payout. A completely unfair commercial advantage handed over to the bookmakers which has never been rectified since.
Arcade customers simply migrated to the bookmakers, inland arcades take down by 40% within weeks and bookmakers shops flourished and mushroomed across the high streets like a gold rush because they could open under any A2 office use whereas amusement arcades are under their own use class. Coastal arcades also stung by machine duty on 5p and 10p AWP's which is why everything currently operates on 2p coin.

A very sad state of affairs and something that has turned amusement into hard gambling on the high street and has forced generations of showmen out of business and ruined our amusement arcade industry.

moonriver wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2017 3:26 pm ......Yet again no mention in the report of the impact of the change in the law in 2007 allowing the bookmakers a spectacular advantage over amusement arcades.....

Was a fiscal link between the betting industry and the Labour Party ever established? Hard to believe anyone could consider such a one-sided change in the Law to be fair, but there must have been some reason for it.

Remember when they sent John Prescott off to the USA to research super casinos? The combination of naivety from the Labour government and very well funded lobbying from the bookmakers persuaded Labour to jump at the chance of a new lucrative duty revenue stream they could get by allowing bookmakers to keep their new fixed odds betting terminals (previously deemed illegal).
Without realising the consequences of releasing a genie from a bottle they could never get back in, they abandoned the casinos and super casino licensing idea when they realised the negative impact the flood of new high street betting shops was having, but it was all too late.

Just to clarify Mr.Moonriver's post with regard to Machine games duty [MGD]. The duty payable on a type 1 machine ie one that the cost to play does not exceed 20p and does not pay out more than £10 is 5% of the NET takings so in this regard it doesn't make any difference if the coin pusher for example is a 2p or 10p one. The rate then jumps to 20% for type 2 machines -ones that cost no more than £5 to play.If a machine doesn't fall into these categories then the duty is 25% [type 3]. No MGD is payable on redemption machines that only offer tickets with no cash prize.

I was referring to machine duty pre February 2013 and before I jumped ship following 25 years of operating arcades

Sweetmeats kindly sent me these photos of Clive Baker and John Hayward's National Museum of Slot Machines 'Vintage Penny Arcade' on Brighton Pier taken July 1983.

This fortune teller is similar to the Brighton Museum Adelphi Man Co Gipsy Fortune Teller and only has one central eye in the forehead which is unusual. It doesn't work, and I haven't seen one working, wonder if the eye moves?

I think you'd have to be quite committed to having your fortune told to consult the uncanny one-eyed gipsy.
I commented to Clive last week on the unparalleled selection of games this arcade presented to the public (notice the Full Team Football, BMR bandit, Stevenson & Lovett Strip Tease etc.) One of the problems at the time, he said, was punters excavating worn and bent pennies from the beach and jamming the machines with them. Now they run almost entirely on 'decrappinated' pennies, he may be able to reintroduce some of those rarer games.

More penny machines on the pier from Bryans Fan:

Why is there a penguin on top of the one eyed fortune teller? Could have been worse, I guess. Could have been a pigeon.

J Peterson
Birds of a feather flock together in America

I think it might be a guillemot?

Fuzzy image of "Uncle Bill" Tolley's Amusement Arcade, High Street, West Bromwich, "one of the best automatic arcades in England... ably managed by Mr. Hunt" from the Automatic Age, January 1933.

Fascinating to see such an array of arcade treasures just down the road from me... an Ahrens Football Game, Waltonian Twins, Ahrens Crystal Gazer, Quested Automatic Lighthouse, Mutoscope Digger?, Mills Electric Shocker and Ahrens Bell Ringers. It's a pity the wall machines are too indistinct to make out.

This image from Ned Williams' Midland Fairground Families shows some fine Ahrens machines stationed around The Ocean Wave ride, believed to be inside Brighton Pier.