Slots

Slot machines may be called fruit machines, one-armed bandits and AWP (Amusement with Prizes) in the United Kingdom. Fruit machines are commonly found in pubs, clubs, arcades, and take-away food shops. These machines commonly have 3 reels, but can be found with 4 or 6 reels with around 16 or 24 fruit symbols printed around them. The reels are spun, and if certain combinations of fruit appear, winnings are paid from the machine, or subgames are played. These are very similar to slot machines seen in casinos and elsewhere around the world, but the term "fruit machine" is usually applied to a type of machine more commonly found in pubs and arcades. These games have lots of extra features, trails and subgames with opportunities to win money, usually more than can be won from just the reels. However, the jackpots from these fruit machines are strictly limited. An old-fashioned word for these machines can be 'Didlers'.

Slot machines in the UK almost universally have the following features, generally selected at random using a pseudorandom number generator:

• A player (known in the industry as a punter) may be given the opportunity to hold one or more reels before spinning, meaning that a held reel will not be spun, but instead retain its result from the previous spin. This can sometimes increase the chance of winning.
• A player may also be given a number of nudges following a spin (or, in some machines, as a result in a subgame); a nudge is a single-step rotation of a reel of the player's choice.
• Cheats can also be made available on-line or through emailed newsletters for subscribers. These cheats give the player the impression of an advantage, whereas in reality the pay out percentage remains exactly the same. The most widely used cheat is known as Hold after a nudge and is a high chance the player will win following an unsuccessful nudge. The cheats give the player an incentive to play the latest games.

Currently in the UK, the cost of an individual game (i.e. a single spin of all of the reels, together with the playing of any subgame that may be triggered by the result of it) may not exceed 50p. The maximum payout for an individual game depends on the type of machine and its location, but is typically £35 in pubs where people under the age of 18 are (generally) not allowed entry. It is known for machines to pay out multiple jackpots, one after the other (this is known as a streak or rave) but each jackpot requires a new game to be played so as not to violate the maximum payout. The minimum payout percentage is 70%, with pubs often setting the payout at around 78%; takeaways and other businesses with much passing trade will generally set it lower. Clubs requiring membership are allowed "club machines", which have higher jackpots and are allowed to charge more each game.

These machines also operate dirrerently from American slot machines. The latter are programmed to pay a percentage over the long run. There is no reason why a jackpot cannot be paid straight after one has already been won, or that it must be paid because it has not been paid in a while. The probability of getting the jackpot in each game is independent of any other game, and these probabilities are all equal. In fact this is a consequence of the regulatory Act, since otherwise it turns from a game of chance into a game of skill (i.e. the skill of picking the right time to play), and is governed differently. Games requiring skill (for example quiz machines) are called SWP (skill With Prizes) machines, but games of chance are AWP (Amusements With Prizes), the legal fiction being that people play mostly for fun and not to primarily to win money.

In the UK, though, the law[16] states that "The target percentage payout (which must not be less than the minimum agreed or defined for the machine type) shall be achieved within any 10,000 games for S.34 (AWP) machines or 100,000 games for S.31 (casino machines)." This means that, in the case of AWP, if the return for the last 10,000 games approaches the legal minimum, the machine is likely to increase the jackpot percentage to avoid ever falling below it.

This type of fruit machine is popular across Europe (in the countries where they are legal), and very popular in countries such as the Czech Republic, Russia, and Ukraine.

It has been alleged by the Fairplay campaign that UK fruit machines employ fraudulent techniques in which gambles and chances which appear to be random are in fact pre-determined and cannot be affected by player choices.

...at this point, you'll have gambled the win up to £25. However, the machine doesn't want you to gamble any further. If from the 5 you select "High", the machine will spin in a 3 and you'll lose. If, on the other hand, you select "Low", the machine will spin in a 9 and you'll lose...

Claims centre around the emulation of fruit machine hardware on Windows-based computers, which can save the memory state at any time then restart with a different choice. Although there were only two practical examples demonstrating this that the end user could replicate, there was a lot of debate between fairplay campaigners and the fruit machine emulation authors about the reliability of these claims[17]. The authors suggested that the emulators did not have totally accurate emulation and so the claim does not lead or prove the assumption that fruit machines "cheat"; The fairplay campaign, led by Stuart Campbell rubbished these claims publicly on various internet forums. After some TV and radio coverage on behalf of the fairplay campaign on this issue, the fruit machine industry has hit back at the allegations through BACTA, releasing a statement on the issue.

BACTA at the time[when?] issued guidance to voluntarily provide notices in the form of a sticker for older machines or integrated on the "top glass" artwork. Most fruit machine manufacturers have done this since around 2005. It is in fact the law now in the UK[15], and all relevant machines carry a notice informing the player that the machine may at times offer a choice in which they have no possibility of winning. Often messages on the machine also state not to reproduce the software, artwork, etc. in any way, shape or form without permission. They are covered by the usual copyright and patent laws.

The newest UK machines are called section 16s. They have 20 lines across 5 reels of 3 symbols high, and the player can pick which lines to play for a spin costing between 10p and 50p, up to £2 (which is 10p for all 20 lines).