The most searching question for many UK arcade owners - certainly those around the coast - is exactly what are they going to be allowed to have sited on their floor that children can access.
The DCMS has announced that scheduled for around October of this year, Category D machines that pay out cash like a slot machine must not be available to guests aged under 18. But it leaves room for some clarity.
We asked George McGregor, Bacta’s communications director, to give us the bottom line on this issue. He made it clear that ticket redemption games are not affected, nor are prize-giving cranes.
But coin pushers and other popular games in seaside arcades that are played for pennies and pay out small sums in cash?
“It’s an important question,” he said, “but pushers are definitely not caught by the new regulations. It is only games that are ‘slot style’,” which means that anything that looks like a fruit machine and which pays out cash cannot be accessed by children.
Last week, following other questions from our Coin-Op Community newsletter, it was made clear that access to Category C machines in pubs was a situation to be policed by landlords.
