With the new changes being suggested it will push out the Category C machines which will disappear from the High Street pubs and the seaside arcades, warns John Stergides.

Industry veteran and machines pioneer John Stergides snr knows all about gaming acts and legislation – he was fighting the good fight in the 2005 iteration and was operating under the 1968 Act.

This time round, the savvy Stergides is not particularly impressed with the timescale and delays it’s facing – nor the direction of travel the changes seem to be taking.

The small businesses and family run operations are, he believes, in the firing line and that is not good for the industry in general. The 2005 act killed off virtually all the manufacturers, will the 2020-something act kill off the small guys

Coinslot: What impact is the delay in the Gambling Review having on your members and the industry in general?

John Stergides: At the moment it’s business as usual – but don’t misinterpret that.

Nothing has changed for the last few years because nothing has really moved on with the Gambling Review.

For the land based machines business, it’s relatively normal – but normal, as we all know, is not necessarily good or right for business growth and development.

We have acclimatised to the conditions: the operators are expecting the changes which have not happened.

So they continue as normal rather than with aspiration of growth and investment.

 Coinslot: Four plus years of talk and consultation and still no definitive date for implementation: how would you rate the mood and confidence levels around the industry as a result of the delay?

John Stergides: For us, it’s a mood of just carry on. There haven’t been any changes – and so we have to trade as normal under the current conditions.

But, our plans will adapt once we know the actual changes that need to be implemented.

For our customers though, whilst they would like more ambitious opportunities in the Gambling Review, they are working on the prospect that we might only get the use of debit cards and possibly an increase in B3 machines.

To be honest, that’s not an impressive list from a review that’s taken nearly five years and was meant to move us on from 2005 legislation?

 Coinslot: Can you highlight some of the practical implications your members have faced because of the delay – notably on investment, technological development, employment and growth prospects?

John Stergides: As always, particularly in our industry, with change comes more restrictions and red tape that makes it more difficult and adds harder conditions which affect the smaller

operators/manufacturers the most.

They don’t necessarily have the facilities and the resources which the larger corporate companies have available. And that will be one of the negative outcomes of the Review as we’re looking at it.

For example, the Commission has introduced quarterly returns on businesses. Now that’s OK for the larger operators as they have personnel to do that extra work.

But the smaller operators or for small family businesses, it’s a major burden.

It’s another extra job and if they do not comply it’s penalties all the way and threats.

That is not the environment for optimism; so they will sell or shut down.

This reduces the competitiveness of the smaller companies against the larger ones, which can lead to reduced employment and growth.

We need more smaller bussinesses which will increase the new ideas and new innovations that deliver growth in machines and more employment.

Coinslot: What about the customer. What affect do you think this is having on the player offerings and entertainment value?

John Stergides: After talking with customers and players, they obviously haven’t noticed any difference as they continue to use the existing games and machines, which now are made available by just a few suppliers.

The delay, though, will definitely be affecting the larger companies, more so than the smaller ones, because they would be expecting to sell more high stake machines.

Coinslot: From your members’ perspective what are the most pressing issues that still need be addressed in the Gambling Review?

John Stergides: For the smaller operators and manufacturers it will not make any differences as there are very few manufacturers left in the country.

Prior to 2005 and the current Gambling Act, there were 62+ manufacturers and many distributors.

Now, for the UK manufacturers there are only a handful as most of the gaming machines are manufactured overseas.

If you want to grow the industry and create more jobs, we need to create opportunities to restart manufacturing in the UK with new AWP machine types such as Category C and D.

These are the backbone of the industry; we need to protect them rather than eliminate them and create a varied range of venues with more low stake operations alonside the gambling only houses with high stake machines.

The UK developed AWPs which were well accepted around the world until the 2005 Gambling Act which created restrictions and destroyed the AWP market.

With the new changes being suggested it will push out the Category C machines which will disappear from the High Street pubs and the seaside arcades – and these operations desperately need this income.

We need to increase the Cat stakes and prizes and add more flexibility to the machines standards to enable the industry to develop more entertainment games so players can have more choice and possibly play together and enjoy and participating in community games which are more affordable.

Interview with John Stergides on potential pushing out of Category C is published in the below issue of Coinslot.

Coinslot – October 18th 2024 – October 24th Issue 2911 – Page 48