Saw a post Harry Monk put earlier and wondered how many people play them here? I love them haven’t really played alot since they jumped from the £25 jackpot. Was in a pub having dinner on Sunday with the family and see they are £1 a go and £70 jackpot!
My favourite was Club Crazy Fruits, I got one off ebay and had to sell when I had my kids, gutted! 20 pence a go and £200 jackpot was my favourite combination. Do you have a fav?
I used to repair and service them, but I never play them and you would never find a service engineer who would 
I do have some nice old ones in various states of restoration.
I’ll see if I can find some pics of others I’ve done later.
im with harry monk
i fix and service them and the stories i hear of people putting in over £400 just to win £250 is a joke
the worst are the old grannies then they moan that the pension they get aint enough
our van driver plays them and seems to be in profit every week
Harry Monk:
I used to repair and service them, but I never play them and you would never find a service engineer who wouldI do have some nice old ones in various states of restoration.
I’ll see if I can find some pics of others I’ve done later.
We used to have those proper old one armed bandits in my dads pub. The Bell Fruit machine with the indians head was a favourite one in its day. I know people who put hundreds in them and are pleased to win 20 or 30 quid.
There was one bloke at Norman Lewis who would put £100 in every time he was on the ferry. I never once saw him win anything near that. His excuse was he didn’t smoke and drink and could afford to lose. 
I’ve very rarely met anyone who will admit to losing money playing them, most people say they come out slightly ahead, or break even. But a typical machine on the ferry, say “Cops and Robbers” costs about £4,000 to buy and the HMRC licence is around £2,000 per year.
The ferry company look to make a profit from them, as does the machine owner (they are normally sited on a 50/50 split basis), and the owner of my local gaming machine company is one of the richest blokes in the area.
Someone has to be paying for all of that.
only ones I play now are the pc emulators you can get
Harry Monk:
I used to repair and service them, but I never play them and you would never find a service engineer who would
Couldn’t agree more, I used to repair and service amusement machines in the 70s but very rarely play them.
It’s strange how you always here of people who claim to know how to beat the odds, kick it here or place a magnet there, and yet our machines always took far more than they paid out 
When I used to play them when i was free and single I would spend lots on them. I mean sometimes lots, but I did win sometimes which does blind you into thinking that you are doing well, but I was under no illusions that the fruit machine is usually the winner. I play the emulators sometimes but the bug has gone for me. I used to know guys that would literally put there whole weeks money in the thing chasing the jackpot on the works machine. I remember one guy turning down £75, then £100 chasing the £250. He went to the cashpoint twice until he had drew over £400 out, trying to win some money back. He got to the £100/£250 gamble, he looked at me and another driver who was watching and said “thisis it at last”, hit the gamble button and lost the lot! He lept up the bar stool flying out from behind him and he put his fist straight through the machine, he was elbow deep in glass and circuit boards! He cut an artery and had to be rushed to hospital.
The social club manager was a diamond and gave him his money back and said no more. Lucky fella, I bet if it was me I would have got sacked and charged for the damage.
