FIFA World Cup 2022

FIFA’s controversial decision to award Qatar the 2022 World Cup and even more weirdly, to host it in the winter – could be coming just in time for ailing pubs and bars.

The task of keeping up sales in a tight climate of falling disposable income and rising prices is pushing many venues to the brink, and yet according to Charlie Mitchell, research, and insight director a the CGA, the typical outpouring of festivities for the football could be enough to save many from collapse.

However, others may be worried about whether they have the infrastructure to make the most of it.

“With continued staff shortages for the sector, alongside supply chain and product availability issues, what seems like a perfect Christmas present may turn out for be an operational nightmare for venues attempting to cope with increased visitors on what would usually be some of the busiest days of the year regardless of sport,” said Mitchell.

We will then hopefully have a busy Xmas period, but as we all know this then takes a big tumble when January comes around, but pubs and clubs need this busy period after the past few years.

Hopefully this will also be a good time for fruit machines and jukeboxes in pubs and clubs with extra footfall over the world cup and then Christmas festive period.

So, will the World Cup offer a Christmas gift? “Absolutely”, let the fun begin and fingers crossed our boys can bring that trophy home!

There has been a lot of calls from pubs and social clubs in and around Birmingham and Leicester areas looking to up date/refresh their fruit machines after the long and hard enforced Covid shut down.

Now is a great time to update machines and hopefully benefit from the pent up demand of customers looking to go back to their local pubs and clubs, meeting friends and playing fruit machines, pool tables and jukeboxes.

Another question we are being asked is what jackpot prize machines can we have at our premises?

If the machine is for a public house this is classed as Category C Fruit Machine with a maximum jackpot of £100 and maximum stake of up to £1 per play.

For social clubs, this is a Category B4 machine which is a maximum jackpot of £400 and a maximum stake of £2 per play.

There is also a B3A machine which is only allowed to be located in committee ran social clubs where the profits are put back into the club for the members. The Jackpot on a B3A machine is £500.

If you would like more information about hiring a fruit machine for your pub or social club free of charge, please give Comrie a call on 02476 249070.

“No Surprise” hospitality venues are not Covid hotspots.

UK Hospitality has responded to data presented to the health experts that hospitality is not a major Covid transmission risk as “no surprise”, hailing the lengths venues have gone to to protect staff and customers.

The findings were presented to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee by regional public health directors on 27^th January and conclude that household interactions are the main source of transmission.

“Hospitality doesn’t crop up as a terribly big risk on our trader”, Sheffield’s public health director Greg Fell told MP’s. “Certainly, when we look at the common exposure dataset, hospitality certainly isn’t a huge risk”.

The findings follow significant investment from hospitality venues to ensure their premises adhere to the latest transmission prevention measures, while battling the unfounded assumption from government that they pose a high risk.

“Hospitality venue are not the hotbeds of infection many people have arbitrarily chosen to portray”, said UK Hospitality CEO Kate Nicholls “This should come as no surprise when you consider the huge investments made by the sector to make venues Covid-secure”.

The witnesses to the select committee are by no means the first to provide scientific evidence to support our case – there has been an absence of any convincing body of evidence to uphold claims of high transmission in hospitality.

The above is no surprise, hospitality has been made the scape goat through this whole pandemic. After the first lock down, hospitality proved that pubs, bars and restaurants can be open and operate safely. But yet again the government closed them all down and kept them closed while all other retail could trade. They talked a good game about grants and helping hands but the real help fell well short and has left many hospitality businesses struggling!

Also all businesses that feed off pubs and clubs were also hit going right up the supply chain. We at comrie have been hit like many businesses and unfortunately have had to let a couple of staff go due to some of our pubs close down. luckily comrie has been supplying fruit machines to pubs and clubs for over 50 years and has a diverse group of customers whom many of have come out the other end of this hard time. Lets have a pint at our local pub or social club and celebrate these fantastic british institutes

FOBT stake change “not as bad as expected”.

UK bookmaker Betfred has said the FOBT stake change was “not as bad as expected” with a bounce back into profit in its most recent fiscal year after two straight years of negative results.

In its latest financial reports, total gambling turnover hit £10.1bn, down from £13.2bn in 2018, and revenue fell 12 percent to £621m, however operating profit came in at nearly £74.8m a dramatic turn around.

Or put another way – The Bookmakers as a whole were feeding the government, media and the public with false information to keep their unlevel playing field over pubs, amusement arcades, bingo halls and other venues. But it has not ended up with up to fifty percent of their shops closing like some of them were falsely predicting.

Their unfair advantage carried on for many years solely because of the monies they have been earning, giving them vastly more power in swaying the government to let them continue with these unfair and addictive type gaming machines. We are glad that after years of pressure from different lobbing groups the government changed the stakes for FOBT machines.

Pubs and clubs can have a digital roulette or poker machine it is in a different format that is £1 per play in pubs and a maximum £2 per play in clubs. This machine is a far softer gaming machine that offers customers entertainment rather than an FOBT machine which were how the media described them – ‘The crack cocaine of gambling’

IS THE END OF COINS IN SIGHT???

The Royal Mint has confirmed that it will not be making any new £2 coins and 2p coins until 2030 at the earliest. The announcement came after a report from the National Audit Office said that the Mint was storing surplus coins way beyond the Treasury’s target buffer.

The report explained – while the storage cost of the excess stocks is relatively small, the Mint’s next decade as it balances maintaining production capability with steady stock reduction.

The excess number of coins in circulation covers all denominations. Holdings of 1p and 2p coins are six and eight times above their buffer targets respectively with £2 coins calculated to be 26 times over target.

The surplus is being attributed to the decline in cash payments, a trend that has been accelerated by changes impacting all aspects of retailers during COVID.

Figures from the National Audit Office show a 59 percent decline in the volume of cash payments between 2008 – 2019 with experts predicting the number of cash payments falling to one in ten before the end of the decade.

During the national lockdown concerns over the spread of Coronavirus has led many retailers to stop accepting cash as a payment method with the demand for cash from banks and ATMs slumping by over 70 percent during March and April.

Although the use of cash has subsequently increased, the NAO believes it is too early to assess the loner term impact on cash access and usage. The report confirmed – the experiences of consumers during this period may offer new insights for the future into the potential impact of markedly reduced cash use.

The reduction in the use of cash and the prognosis outlined by the NAO paints  a bleak picture for the pub, bingo and AGC sectors which are prohibited from using electronic payment methods, something that must change if the industry is to be given the opportunity to survive and prosper.

So many people rely on cash to live there lives it would be a big blow for millions of people. No doubt we will become a cashless society but this needs to be done gradually over the next 10-15 years to help people. In the mean time they need all shops and businesses to accept cash. Comrie are already keeping a close eye on the new cashless fruit machines for pubs and social clubs that are being tested as I type this.

The new challenge for the pub landlord

As pubs increasingly try to be all things to all people, new research suggests that it is in carving out a specific niche that the pub landlord best positions for venue on high returns.

The latest research on British market trends from research firm, The Montel group, shows significant disparity between demographics of customers. Older drinkers see a more traditional pub experience, and an increasing millennial customer base are looking for more unconventional features.

Millennials are particularly likely to view pubs as all round leisure experiences and are receptive to new and more unusual forms of entertainment. The difficulty for landlords will be to cater for these open minded pub goers while also meeting the needs of the traditional patrons.

We are seeing a lot of pubs put a new spin on familiar ideas, some have harnessed a sport that has certainly never been traditionally see in  pubs – while others have become known for board games or vintage video games, blurring the line between the pub and the arcade.

One commonality standing out in Mintels latest survey is the paramount importance of good quality food.

The company claims that as many as 87% of respondents, young and old, insist that high quality food is now important to them on their pub visits. Further data shows that the key area emerging in the food and beverage cuisine is Vegan.

Whilst TV football has been a mainstay of the pub for decades, choosing a different sport and sticking with it as well as throwing into the mix technological upgrades like projectors and table based ipads, can help create a unique interpretation of brand for any given location.

Some pubs have also tapped into mixed martial arts, American football or wrestling. All nighters showing sports are increasingly popular, and events like Super Bowl can help in drawing in customers who might not usually watch sport in a pub.

To capture the minds and wallets of younger patrons, innovation isn’t just desirable for publicans – it is now a necessity.

Pub insolvencies reach four year high!

The number of UK pubs closing their doors due to insolvency hit 530 for the 12-month period up to 30^th September 2019, a 13% increase on the prior year total, and the highest bankruptcy figure since 2015. Sterling weaknesses since the Brexit referendum have seen costs of imported alcohol rise, with a decline in young drinkers hitting pub profits.

I came across this article while doing some planning for Comrie during lockdown. What concerns me most is this is before Covid19 and what pubs and social clubs are having to go through at this present time. Yes there have been thousands of deaths and many more people ill, but when we eventually get out of lockdown who knows how the pub and club landscape is going to look. Then there are all the many hundreds businesses that feed off pubs and clubs.

The government have helped with grants, the furloughed scheme and bounce back loans but I do think that the leisure industry and especially the public houses and social clubs need extra help from the government. This is because Boris announced weeks before lockdown to stay away from pubs and clubs then add in the fact that these venues will be the last to open and with strict restrictions in place! Also the demographics of your typical social club customer are 60 plus which will make them less likely to go to their local until they know things are 100% safe.

None of us have a crystal ball but my betting is a lot of the pubs and clubs that were just getting by will not be opening there doors again, which will push up the numbers even higher from my original article that I found at the top of this blog post. Add to the fact how important these places are to the local community and this is not good news for the UK as a whole.

We at Comrie will be doing our best to help and work with the pubs and clubs that we supply fruit machines, jukeboxes and pool tables to. Some of our customers have been with us for 50 years and counting which is testament to our working arrangement but also they become more than just customers! Here’s to raising a glass of beer in one of our regular pubs and clubs in the not to distant future and hopefully celebrating the fact that Big Boris has done more the help this struggling sector…….

Wetherspoons faces licence withdrawal

A JD Wetherspoon’s pub in Wanstead could be set to lose its gambling machine permit and automatic two machine entitlement after failing to prevent underage gambling in two separate police operations.

Redbridge Council licensing committee will meet on the 19^th November to discuss whether The George Public House should be allowed to operate its seven machines, after a 15-year-old police cadet used them to gamble uninterrupted in January and July of this year.

Despite staff training being undertaken following both incidents, the council is now considering stripping the pub of its 2012 gaming licences altogether.

“JD Wetherspoon regrets the failure of the two test purchase exercises,” said Wetherspoon’s head of legal Nigel Connor, responding to the 10^th July warning from the Council.

“We would of course be more than willing to meet representatives of the authority as an alternative to the enforcement action proposed, in order to show that the necessary measures are in place at the pub to avoid recurrence”.

This is quite simple to avoid and most local pubs do not have the footfall of a Wetherspoons pub so they should be able to keep an eye on their gaming machines. Ensure that your fruit machines are located with-in sight of the bar (the nearer the better). Also that all your staff have been told to approach anyone who looks under 21 who tries to play the machines to ensure they are old enough. If you would like more information on this please contact us at Comrie and we will send you more details of training for you and your staff. We supply pubs and clubs with fruit machines in Birmingham, Walsall, Dudley, Leicester, Northampton and Coventry and we can say nearly all the locations we deal with are on the ball with this issue, but it is best to refresh your staff to be safe.

Poker is arguably the most popular card game in the world today on both land based casinos and virtual online casinos alike. The learning curve isn’t steep and there is a skill element involved in the equation so it is not a game based purely on luck. Poker has been around for a good 200 odd years, but there are some poker facts which may still blow your mind and give you a little something to think about.

FACT #1: Poker originated from the USA

If the name Texas Hold em’ hadn’t already given it away, we are here to tell you that the birth place of poker was America, specifically, New Orleans. New Orleans also happens to be the birth place of Jazz music and cocktails. It is not possible to trace down the exact location of where the first hand of poker was played, but historians confirm that the game was drafted and developed in the Louisiana area.

FACT #2: The early versions of Poker was played with just 20 cards

The poker we have come to know and adore today is played with a full deck of 52 cards. However, in its early days, poker could be played with just a deck of twenty cards and four players.

The game back then was a little less convoluted, the four players were each dealt five cards and the betting would begin on who had the best hand. Historians say the 52 deck card was first integrated as a whole into game from the year 1834 onwards.

FACT #3: A game of Poker once lasted nearly eight and a half years

The Bird Cage Theatre in Arizona claims to have been home to the longest ever poker game that ever ensued. The game supposedly began in 1881 and lasted a staggering eight years, five months and three days. According to the Bird Cage Theatre the players were all well-known wild wild west kind of personalities and the minimum buy in was $1000.

FACT #4: Poker chips and how they came to be

During its infancy, poker was played for gold nuggets, gold coins and even gold dust. It was hard to standardize units due to this and the need for a standard unit soon became apparent. This is when gaming houses and Saloons came up with poker chips. Poker chips used to be made of ivory, bone, clay and wood. The Poker chips used to have designs on it to depict its value. The coins could be exchanged for real money right at the gaming house pretty much just like how it works in casinos nowadays.

FACT #5: The first poker tournament broadcast

It is not uncommon for poker tournaments to be televised all over the globe today, but it was in 1973 that a poker tournament was, for the very first time, televised. The tournament was the world series of Poker which was occurring in Las Vegas.

FACT #6: Poker is the most lucrative sport in the world

We all know how much footballers, NBA players and golfers can make, but what is not as well known is that if you look at the top five biggest prizes awarded in super high roller tournaments the sum of these awards totals up to $44,202,738 which makes poker the most lucrative game in the world by a good margin.

FACT #7: UK poker in the Guinness Book

The largest game of poker to have taken place was in Onchan, Isle of Man. There were 225,000 grinders vying for the top $25,000 in June 2013. The tournament hosted by PokerStars had a $1 buy-in.

FACT #8: The evolution of poker

Poker is believed to have evolved from Dominoes and ranked card combinations. It was back in 969 A.D. that Emperor Mu-Tsung is said to have played domino cards with his wife. What’s more interesting is that bluffing was integral to that game and so it is today.

FACT #9: Food for thought

• Over 300 million 7 card poker hand combinations exist.
• The best poker player will not have more than a 5% edge against another good player.
• The way pro-poker players stack their chips is usually a technique used to fool their opponents.
• Leaning forward or backward is an indication of a strong hand.
• Bluffers use the ‘eye to eye’ aka staring technique to get you down.
• Superstitious poker players gamble in dirty clothes. A sure fire way to success, say some of the legends.

Poker has come a long way from being played with 20 cards for gold dust to where people can play for fun on Facebook or play for real in high roller, lustrous tournaments. Has the game stopped evolving? What will poker be like in the future? We can only ponder!

At Comrie we offer the latest digital poker machine at no cost for your pub or social club. If you would like a free trial of this latest machine please give us a call to chat.

Summer holiday season in over which is good for local pubs around Coventry and the surrounding areas that we supply, as they have had a quiet summer since the world cup has ended.

Saying that lots of holiday spots around the UK will be happy with the excellent sunny summer we have had. We decided to take another staycation this year and headed up to the North East coast and toured around. We have some beautiful spots around the UK that are truly hidden gems.

One of these hidden gems is Robin Hood Bay, which is a small fishing village near the North Yorkshire Moors National Park. It is really picturesque. Another place we stayed at on our tour was Filey which is no longer a fishing village but has become a tourist attraction due to its large beach and great setting.

Of course no UK holiday would be complete without a trip to the seaside amusement arcades. This was the part that our daughter Macy loved the most and I think myself and Cheryl became pusher machine experts during this holiday. However we were definitely out done on the dance machine video game by Macy!

The arcades in Scarborough and Whitby were really busy and it was great seeing so many people enjoying family fun times playing amusement and gaming machines in the amusements arcades and making great memories.

Whilst we don’t supply pusher machines and video games, at Comrie we do supply pubs and clubs with fruit machines and pool tables which were all busy at all the amusements we went in.

And, no seaside trip is complete without tasting the local caught sea food.

We enjoyed the trip so much, we have said that each year we are going to visit a different seaside town in the UK which will also help or local economy, win win for us all