Cumbria firms counting the cost if new pound coin

AS the boss of an independent amusement arcade business, Frankie Bailey is braced for a hefty bill.

For within weeks, he will make changes to the gambling machines which attract thousands of people through his doors every year.

It is a measure which is unavoidable, as a new pound coin is introduced into circulation.

For the businessman, who has been operating Bailey's Amusements and Cafe in Dalton Road in Barrow for the last eight and half years, it is a frequent, and frustrating reality of being the business.

He said: "We have no choice but to take it on the chin. These changes come on the back of the new £5 note and ahead of the new £10 note.

"I anticipate getting our machines reprogrammed, with a cost of up to £2,500. We have no choice because we will not be able to operate if we do not."

Gambling machines have highly sensitive coin mechanisms which can detect the type, width, weight and make-up of a coin.

The changes at Bailey's will be made to 30 machines, which are a mixture of traditional fruit machines and the more recent touch screen machines.

The business, which also operates a cafe from the premises, employs five people and is open seven days a week.

Mr Bailey, 55, said: "Ideally it is a cost that we would not have. We simply have to bear the brunt of it, because there is no compensation or help to make the change.

"It has happened a number of times over the years. It was the same with the new 10p a few years ago. There was a new 10p and a 5p came out and we had to do them all then."

Operating on a larger scale is Cumbria-based national amusement machine supplier Leisurematic, which operates about 1,000 coin-operated machines across the length and breadth of the country.

It is having to fork out more than £30,000 to ensure it can survive the arrival of the new coin.

That's the total cost to have the coin mechanism in every machine either reprogrammed or replaced.

"We just really had to bite the bullet on it," says managing director Jonathan Barker, who thinks the amusement industry and vending sector in general will be hit hard by the introduction of the new coin.

"The impact on businesses that have coin validators is phenomenal.

"It's imposed on you but we accept the reasoning behind it.

"It's not something you can protest about. It's just the nature of being in business."

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"We've had to make provision and knuckle down and make sure it happens as smoothly as possible for all our operating sites.

"We maintain it's going to cost our business in excess of £30,000 overall.

"That's to change the currency acceptance on all our coin mechanisms.

"That cost has to be absorbed but we understand that progress is progress and there are certain aspects of business that you've got to accept to an extent.

"We don't feel it will benefit us any way having the new pound coin, but there's a reason it's been brought out."

Leisurematic, based in Carlisle, offers amusement machines and children's rides on a shared income rental bases.

Part of its rental package is that it covers all maintenance of the machines, meaning the firm absorbs the whole reprogramming and replacement costs of the coin mechanisms in its machines.

Mr Barker says the company has dealt with coin changes in the past but thinks this is the most radical experienced due to the shape of the coin and what he says is a narrow timescale set by the government to phase out the existing pound coin.

"Our services engineers have to work very quickly in order to hit the target of every machine being reprogrammed by the time the old coin gets phased out," he adds.

It's a process that will have a bigger impact on some businesses than others but every business or organisation with a machine that takes pound coins is likely to be affected.

Visit: www.thenewpoundcoin.com/ for more information.