Liberal Jennings

[aristomatic]

Saw this today.

Never seen this setup before or even heard of it.

[youngerap]

Anyone know what makes a club / casino 'liberal'? I wondered if it related to a type of membership?

[coppinpr]

In the Uk at least 'liberal clubs were, and indeed very much still are, private licensed clubs, there are also Conservative clubs, progressive clubs and working mens clubs, all much the same catering to a slightly different clientèle in each case.
There real charm was during the fixed pub licencing hours days when they were exempt from the narrow opening hours pubs had to keep to. Since the opening hours have changed many of the smaller ones have closed or joined with others in an area.
The fact that you had to be a paying member to go in allowed for the longer hours and for more relaxed gambling laws, the playing of cards,dominoes snooker and billiards was allowed for "reasonable stakes" unlike pubs which were restricted to "minimal stakes" or no gambling at all. this meant slots could have larger payouts and thus machines were designed to suit these type of clubs. Strangely darts was always played in the clubs but rarely for money in those days,perhaps because it was very often a team game played one club against another.as it still is

[jonesthegarage]

strangely enough it was only a couple of days ago I was educating my lads about how things have changed since the good old days when the billiard room in "the Lib" had a men only policy and even female staff were barred from the tasks of collecting glasses, emptying ashtrays and the like. Mind you it was also a time when you never heard people swear on the street, or in front of women in any environment, the older generation would stand still and doff their caps/hats for a passing funeral and for some reason none of the youth felt the need to walk around with their hand down the front of their trousers which seems to be the norm these days.

A few pints, pie and peas served in between "turns" and bingo for the women while the men put the world to rights in the billiard room.

[operator bell]

Back in the day, most of these machines were set in the 60% to 70% payout range. Then one day a tech at Harolds Club in Reno was told to change the percentage on some Pace machines, and by mistake set them to over 90%. Instead of getting fired he got congratulated, because these machines got played so much they made more money than they ever did before, in spite of paying out more. Pretty soon all the Nevada casinos followed suit and made their machines more "liberal" to the point where 90% was considered low, or "conservative". The trouble is, the tubes were designed on a 70% basis and kept running out of coins, hence this modification. However, this change happened at about the same time the Bally was introduced with its famous "bottomless" hopper payout, so not very many were ever made.