History of Fruit Machines

The UK fruit machine history can be traced back decades, and in the early days these fruit machines where very basic in both their game play and design, this was due to them being totally mechanical devices.

Fruit machines in general are simply slot machines but where as their American cousins offered players much bigger jackpots the UK fruit machine market has always tended to offer higher top prize payouts.

When fruit machines first started to appear in the UK they became the target of organised groups of criminals who realised the huge profit potentials of supplying such machines to pubs and clubs around the UK. It didn't take the UK government long to latch onto this fact and in 1968 they introduced the very first Gaming Act which was meant to govern the operation of any type of fruit or slot machine.

This Gaming Act was quite severe and they limited the number of fruit machines an establishment could have any insisted that any venue wanting such machines obtained a Gaming Permit from their local council. They also made sure via these permits (which had to be displayed near the fruit machine) were legal in terms of minimum payouts and also any tax due on them was duly paid.

Recent History of Fruit Machines

Recently however, thanks to the Labour Government in the UK they overhauled the laws and rules pertaining to UK fruit Machines, and this new law has, it has to be said, allowed a more liberal approach to gambling in the UK, which was an attempt by Labour to increase the potential for taxing such gambling devices.

They introduced the UK Gambling Commission and it is this division who oversee all aspects of gambling in the UK, they, to their credit have made great strides in giving players more value when playing fruit machines by way of increases in the maximum payouts of these machines, whilst at the same time ensuring legal aspects of the fruit machines operations are closely monitored.

Fruit Machine where also categorised into different groupings and this has led to the arrival of a range of £500 payout fruit machines, these are only allowed to be installed in premises where under 18's are not allowed or have access too.

To ensure that small, seaside amusement arcades can still operate profitably they also did away with the need to pay for permits on low stake (10p) low jackpot (£5) fruit machines, these machine may be played by anyone under the age of 18 as it was deemed they are not as addictive as their higher stake peer machines.

Modern Day Fruit Machines

Thanks to the wonders of the internet you can now find a large selection of fruit machines that can be played online, and already some of these fruities are becoming first favourites with players, games such as Pub Fruity and Treasure Ireland are well worth checking out.

Fruit Machine Payouts Over The Years

There is however a lot of discrepancy regarding the payout percentages you can find on any UK fruit machines with the minimum legal payout percentage being in the low 70's, but any fruit machine operator worth his salt knows that by giving players the higher payouts (in the mid 90's range) they will ultimately make more money by actually giving these players some value for money.

Next time you are in the UK make sure, before you play any fruit machine you check the minimum payout percentage which has to be legally displayed on any fruit machine, and do yourself a favour by only playing those that return a high proportion of the stakes inserted into them!