“OUR CUSTOMERS ARE calling out for it,” exclaimed Bacta president Gabi Stergides, who emphasised the need for new, innovative machine concepts in his Bacta Convention speech.

In his first Annual General Meeting as president, Stergides spoke of the industry’s power to increase manufacturing and rejuvenate all the locations that are home to amusements, from pubs to seaside arcades to holiday parks. He explained that Bacta have the customer feedback showing players want progress.

“Despite our initial disappointments with the consultation document, there are underlying reasons to be optimistic for our future,” Stergides assured. “We’ve heard it today, we’ve had it confirmed by the work undertaken by PricewaterhouseCooper. We have the consumer data and the evidence base that we’ve been asked to produce.”

Indeed, while the Gambling Commission asked convention attendees to put the customer first in terms of product and social responsibility, Stergides highlighted the fact that players are also asking for more entertainment.

“We want to be able to create innovative new products to keep up with the trends that people have spoken about today,” he stated. “Kids at the seaside want bigger plushies, teddies and drones in their pushers and cranes, adults in arcades want community jackpots and more freedom of choice, not just in fruit machines, but in interactive, entertaining games. In pubs, the quiz machine is nearly gone so we want to work with the government to help what is still described by many as the meeting place of the group – the fun part of the pub – before its too late and it’s gone. We have proved to government that we need, and that people want, new machines with additional social responsibility measures to go along with the changes in stakes and prizes. Alongside the report in our evidence, we’ve made the DCMS, GC and even the treasury well aware of our sectors challenges.”

One such challenge – which has been the obvious focus of Bacta over the last year – is the reduction of FOBT maximum stakes, however looking forward Stergides sees room for a more appropriate product the whole gambling industry could enjoy.

“We are confident that the FOBT maximum stake will be reduced, frankly with the coalition of support behind us I cannot see how anything other than a £2 stake is politically deliverable,” he said.

“However, given how fever our politics are at the moment anything is possible, so we still have to work hard to achieve our aims. If it were £2, perhaps parity would bring unity to the industry and we would all work together to bring an appropriate product, like the B5, to the market, with all the appropriate measures to ensuring it keeps gaming fun. I can tell you one thing, bringing the industry together will stop this nonsense we heard 3 weeks ago from Malcolm George, when he described arcades as grotty.”

Showing pictures on his slideshow of the type of high quality arcade the industry has to offer, with plenty of staff, aesthetic designs, and modern slots, the Bacta president joked: “Perhaps slotty, but certainly not grotty.”