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To operate an amusement arcade or 'pleasure fair' as local authorities used to call them you first need planning consent. They are sui generis use and obtaining planning consent used to be very difficult indeed without then having to follow on and obtain a local authority permit where you basically had to prove 'need'.

Certain types of commercial environments such as motorway services or shopping/ garden centres where there has been an automatic grant of mixed retail and other entertainment uses within the site can be utilised legally for both gaming centre or family entertainment amusements ancillary to the main shopping use as far as PLANNING terms are concerned.

The current lumbering white elephant that is the Gambling Commission does not see any milage whatsoever in prosecuting the small vintage penny arcade operator and therefore they allow them to operate on a 'turning a blind eye' basis within very grey areas.
One other reason is that vintage old penny amusements dont generate any duty and there are much bigger fish to fry for the Gambling Commission which is entirely funded by the gaming industry, ironically they are now struggling financially having almost wiped out the traditional amusement industry (the hand that fed them) all within a decade.

Amusement only machines, anything that you pay to watch something, such as working models or mutoscopes, anything that you play a game that doesnt pay a prize, such as table football, anything that you pay and it (always) vends , such as an elephant vender, you can set up anywhere as long as ancillary to some other use. As soon as you add one armed bandits or allwins or cranes etc that are games of chance and pay out then you technically fall under the Gambling Commission rules.

Well I did fire off an email and YES they did get back to me, so that answers my question.
As usually I'm always looking for spares/parts... and the only thing they sell as spares is the pay-out bowl...
Scottie

moonriver wrote: As soon as you add one armed bandits or allwins or cranes etc that are games of chance and pay out then you technically fall under the Gambling Commission rules.

Strewth .... So Justice Scrutton has finally been branded a fraud.

Unfortunately his judgement in 1912 related to the Pickwick and its design.
Allwins were later not accepted as games of skill by The Gaming Board and are currently not accepted as such by the Gambling Commission either.

Ah, but there is an old British film (brought to our attention on this forum several years ago) it concerns, IIRC, an ex naval man who buys a pier. He ends up down the police station letting an urchin prove that a Bryans allwin can be played and through skill indeed win.
Who remembers this, or is it just me?

Yes I remember seeing that film, Barnacle Bill 1957, the kid brought in to demonstrate being able to win on the allwins when others couldn't ...... pre Gaming Board's opinion that allwins are games of chance.

Unfortunately the Gaming Board (now Gambling Commission) moved the goalposts by insisting that:

...a game in which the outcome or result can be influenced to any appreciable extent by chance is, in the Commission’s view, a game of chance for the purposes of the Act (Gambling Act, Section 6).
It follows that the machine on which the game is played is a gaming machine.

It does not matter for these purposes whether the element of chance / luck predominates over the element of skill.
Nor does it matter whether the element of chance can be eliminated by superlative skill.

See Justice Scrutton's Tipple

Topic merged - Site Admin.

Came across these recently - looks pretty well made take on the original. Anyone have one in their collection? http://www.retro-arcade.co.uk/

The Win and Place themed games have proved to be really popular. We have made many versions since its introduction with the latest being made for John Wardley. He is the designer of many iconic rollercoasters including Oblivion, Air and Raptor selecting his creation Nemesis, from Alton Towers, to be the backflash. He kindly allowed us to offer the Nemesis Allwin for sale on our site and it has become a best seller.
http://www.retro-arcade.co.uk/newpage

Hi Lenny,
Is it possible to buy parts, mechanisms and exterior fittings from you? I'm sure there would be some demand for them from members of this site, given the difficulty of sourcing original spares.

By the way, I posted a link to your website in the Archive today.

Thank you for your question and posting a link to our site.
The only parts we sell, mostly via Ebay, are win cups and coin slots. There are several reasons for doing so:

1. The cost of manufacturing cups is inordinately high, especially factoring in the price of the mould. To make them cost effective, we produce in excess of our own requirements and sell the surplus.
2. Coin slots are pretty simple to make and there are a surprising number of machines with them missing. Also, having milled a quantity of slots, we can divide production between 2p, 10p and old 1d length grooves to accept any for these coins.

In both cases, these are parts which we can confidently sell for almost any game in the UK and abroad (Canada, Australia, America, France, Germany to name a few countries we have supplied). It has been a revelation to see how far afield we receive enquiries from collectors and enthusiasts. We supply a gentleman in Australia who makes Elevenses!

It would be lovely to offer a comprehensive range of parts for all makes and styles of old machines but we are actually Allwin manufacturers and concentrate on parts required for our production.

I would like to add that our journey into Allwin production has introduced me to some amazing and fascinating people. What a diverse and enthusiastic bunch we are!

Topic moved & merged - Site Admin.

Just flicking through ebay and came across this not my thing but I thought it was a really good recreation. I wonder if one day some of the Bryans machines could be recreated.......

This company Retro Arcade has been discussed on here quite a few times and they do many backflashes and now sell Allwin parts. I have yet to see any feedback from anyone having bought one though. They look good and much better quality than Nostalgic and made of oak....
https://www.retro-arcade.co.uk/

I bought allwin track from them before and it was great quality.

jimmycowman wrote:I wonder if one day some of the Bryans machines could be recreated.......

Retro-arcade already produce one Jimmy - less the iconic corner plates on the door and a different style cabinet

...... but are they variable with rear sprung cup rods?
Either way I'd be surprised if The Bryans family haven't kept their interest legally updated.

BP

It's good to see the soul of the allwin been kept alive in modern times. If I saw one in a pub (what's a pub) I would give it a go.