SLOT MACHINE GAMBLING

Evening Star, Issue 22031, 17 May 1935, Page 11

SLOT MACHINE GAMBLING

POLICE END HUGE GRAZE The meu who have made . fortunes out of the greatest gambling craze that has ever swept over Britain have reaped their harvest (states the ■' Sunday Express '). They ■ arc the people who draw the profits of the Rambling slot machines —or fruit machines. Thoir days of profit-making are numbered, for Scotland Yard- plans to have - the machines wiped out of the country by the end of April. > There are clubs whose existence depends on this gambling craze. Some take as much as £2OO a week. The " big men " of the fruit machino business have soared to sudden riches. One kept a small sweet. and grocery business in London. Now he has v a town house and a country house, a yacht, and two car/». Another was a beach photographer. tie borrowed £SO, started operations with two second-hand machines, and made a fortune. " Fruit machines " are so called because when the coin—a penny, sixpence, shilling, or florin—is inserted and a lever pullod, three drums with representations of plums, apples, etc. painted on them, revolve. When they are stopped by tlip player pushing three buttons in succession certain combinations of " fruit " give certain mor.oy rewards. gome machines use number combinations instead of fruit. The best combination gives the best prize or " jackpot," which may be anything from below £-5 to £ls. The chances of winning it have been estimated at 1,000 to 1. New York and other American States bee-nine so alarmed by the extent of the gambling for ten years. that the wholesale destruction of all " fruit machines " was ordered. They have all been pitched out of the United States. The tevcr crossed the Atlantic when Sir William Gentle, who had been Chief Constable of Brighton, from 1801 to 1920, imported the first machines and installed them on a Brighton pier. They were of a simpler type than the present, and offered a fairer gamble. Within a few weeks Brighton became " fruit machine" mad. They were even installed in butchers' shops and hairdrossiug establishments. The news that profits amounting to £2OO a week were being made by Brighton tradesmen from a single machine spread throughout the country. The fruit machine industry was born. Fir William Gentle's company dropped the machines when Brighton magistrates decided the machines were illegal. Britain in 10:29 imported '2,0!>l machines, valued at £IO,OOO. We have since imported £3.571 machines, valuvd at £190,000.

The industry in England is ahnost entirely controlled by half A dozen firms. They import the machines, and subsidiary concerns act as distributors, operators, and financiers. A silk merchant who gave up his business to become a fruit machine operator said to a ‘ Sunday Express ’ representative: “I specialised in the penny machines, and from the beginning made fifty pounds a week, profit. The demand for the machines became so great that I had to send a man to the United States to buy up every second-hand machine he could lay his hands on. I gave up the business because is became a racket. My clients in certain areas complained that ffiy machines were stolen, „or put _ out cf action withm a week of their installation. The racketeers employed men to put bent coins in machines so}d by rivals and so put them out of action. Distributors are prepared to lend anybody up to £SOO to open a club on condition that machines are installed on profit-sharing terms. The distributors usually give 60 per cent, to the club and keep 40 per cent, themselves. Hundreds of clubs depend for their existence on their gambling profits. These cannot fail, because each machine contains eighty springs that control the winning combinations. If the “jackpot” is paid out , too frequently, an adjustment of the mechanism puts it right.” An official of Murray’s Club, Beak-, street, W., said: “We no longer have the machines, but I do know of one river club that made profits amounting to £1,500 during a single season from seven machines. V, c decided that there was always a risk of angry losers or relatives and friends of losers complaining to the police and so bringing ourselves under official observation. Wo also ascertained from the police that such machines are now illegal. A man who supervised two machines Mrs Meyrick installed at her 43 Cltib in Gerrard street, W., said: “ The machines never failed to yield at least £5 a night.” A woman installed two machines in a Maidenhead Club, and after three years she was able to educate her son at an expensive school and buy and run a motor car. The machines earned upwards of £4O a week for her. But there arc also the stories:— / One man spent £2O at the rate of a shilling every half-minute trying to win the “ jackpot ” at a Sofib, W., club. He failed, and returned the following morning to spend another £2O. He won a “ jackpot ” of £8 10*. A woman gambler at a river club lost £SO a week over a long pferiod of continuous play, and was obliged to soil her jewellery to pay her debts. “Jackpot ” fever has spread to the high seas, but 'complaints by passengers particularly on board the cruise

ships, arc causing many shipping concerns to withdraw the machines. During recent cruises, passenger* have spent up to £IOO a day on each machine lor fortnight. , , ■