Short-lived thrill for AWP increase
While I can understand the leap of joy experienced when the intense lobbying by the licensed trade organisations resulted in a stake and prize increase for AWP machines, I have to sound a note of caution on a couple of fronts.
First is a financial one. Although the actual date of implementation is set for tomorrow
(27 October), there is on my estimation unlikely to be a rush to install the new software. The main reason for this is that the upgrade immediately moves the changed machines into a new duty band, which looks set to swallow up any of the additional profit.
Currently £25 jackpot machines are known as Category C machines. Under the terms of the Betting and Gaming Duties Act 1981, the maximum prize for a category C machine was set from January 2002 (when the last increase came in) at £25. So if a machine is capable of paying out more than £25, it moves up a class and becomes a Category B4 machine.
It's likely to be July 2007 before the next Budget changes take effect, allowing the Treasury to change the category definitions. This means that for the next nine months, anyone installing a £35 machine must pay the higher category duty — which is £1,400 instead of £580!
Apparently, in their rush to award the new bonus to the licensed trade, the DCMS did not bother to consult with Revenue & Customs about the likely financial effects, so it was only after the announcement that the horrid truth was revealed. In a nutshell, unless you are convinced that the new jackpot will boost takings by at least £800 to £900 in the next nine months, then it does not make sense to switch at this stage.
The second point is that the increase comes with additional baggage in the form of a threat, not even veiled, from the minister Richard Caborn. If the industry does not "play ball" on issues such as stakes and a code of practice banning under-18 players, then the Government will withdraw the Order. So there!
This is meant to be something of a self-policing measure, based on an industry-agreed code. However, it places additional burdens on individual operators to ensure not only that they are aware of test-purchasing of alcohol, but the possibility of test-playing of machines by the same youngsters!
There appears to be nothing to stop a licensing authority from flexing their muscles in this way, especially as the government has warned the industry that it takes this issue very seriously indeed. So not only has the new-style landlord to have eyes in the back of his head around the bar, he must also make sure that staff watch the machines as well.
He cannot rely on parents. They probably think that teenagers playing gaming machines is harmless fun. They cannot immediately differentiate between low-prize machines and low jackpot machines, and they are not, certainly not, going to go around reading prohibition notices or Gamcare addresses.
Short of having a machine guard on duty, or a no-entry zone for kids around the machine (yes, that was suggested by the Select Committee at one stage), the landlord will have to rely on a kind of all-round vigilance if he is to escape the strictures of the authority. But at least allowing under-18s to use the machines is not a statutory offence at present, although it will be under the new Act, even potentially for low-prize machines.
It is, however, yet one more obligation placed on the pub trade. A new meaning for "cumulative impact", perhaps?
