pub bannings update!

Nil Satis · Post by **Nil Satis** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:15 pm

Blackpool was the first place I ever travelled to play machines seriously (way back in the late 80s) and at that stage it was a goldmine, with virtually every pub and at least half the arcades having a quiz machine of some description. Even the Pleasure Beach and the big indoor swimming pool opposite had one.

Over the years on my occasional visits back there I've noticed the gradual reduction in the number of machines, which seemed to go hand-in-hand with the general air of decay hanging over the place.

I imagine the recent effect of the smoking ban accelerating the closure of already weaker members of the pub trade will have had a real effect there as well.

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:32 pm

I'd agree that Blackpool is disappointing on the machines front nowadays. In central Blackpool at least there didn't seem to be that many pubs - I guess because it's a very poor town and people don't have the disposable income to support one of every chain bar. I probably found nine or ten machines while I was there, some of them in pretty ropey pubs, and some of them virtual museum-pieces, and that was in quite a good walk around the centre of the town. This was at the time that ItBox 54 had just come out, but I only found one of them, and remember feeling a bit hacked off with that. As for arcades, the only SWP I found was a £1 play WWTBAM stand-alone in a tiny arcade in a backstreet near the fleapit I was staying in.

swych · Post by **swych** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 6:06 pm

cool wrote:just got back from Newquay. The site of one of my £1000millionaire triumphs still has one at £534.I dont play them anymore as I dont get any practice in. Spoke to the manager of the arcade (CAROUSEL AMUSEMENTS)who's told me I would be banned if I won again as I would be committing fraud. I said hows that then and he said it was fraud as you had taken the time to learn the answers and that was wrong!!!!! Head to the above arcade and do their machine PLEASE!!!!!!

hi, how did you learn the answers, does somebody have a rom of all the quiz machine questions?

wires74 · Post by **wires74** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 7:01 pm

When the first 1k wwtbm came out there were no spoilers on them .The 1st prototype was placed in the OASIS arcade near the waxwork museum in blackpool and after 3 1k jackpots and a number for friends I was barred .CROWN LEISURE owned it by the way they own all the piers and 3 or 4 of the main arcades. I still have a cheque for 6 hundred quid which they CANCELLED on me when they barred me and a letter barring me fom all their premises. HAPPY DAYS !!!!

cool · Post by **cool** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:23 am

I was barred by the manager at eastbourne pier after just one win (I believe that was run by Crown?), but fortunately I got the ban rescinded by approaching the top company management. Got a lot of flak for paying Tesco garages in pound coins- not anymore got a letter from Head Office,Dundee saying that theyve got to take them! Even had a total dimwit inform me that paying more than £5 in pound coins for petrol isnt legal tender.What is it then?

cool · Post by **cool** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:27 am

most of the £1000 machines were run by Rank/LL who would send out wwtbam headed letters with cheque.They never had a problem with me whatsoever. Its a shame that nobody has identified the guy who travelled with wife & children in tow (from up north allegedly)that must have made a fortune from them as any site I visited described him as having got the jackpot.

wires74 · Post by **wires74** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:37 am

NOT in Blackpool , CROWN LEISURE used to virtually own BLACKPOOL.
Having their headquarters in PRESTON certainly helped them.Fookin WANK
outfit machines always diddled you.Talking about the SOUTH COAST had one in littlehampton, Weymouth and Eastbourne Pier was hit a few times.
HAPPY DAYS !!!!!

cool · Post by **cool** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 1:00 am

wires are you that mystery man?

wires74 · Post by **wires74** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 1:17 am

Never travelled with the wife or kids but had some lovely results
on the 1k wwtbam nationwide.When they tightened them up obviously
struggled then but a guy I used to bump into GRIMSBY MICK was still
whacking them think he had list of all the spoilers GOLDDUST.

cp999 · Post by **cp999** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 1:24 am

There was a guy from around the Liverpool area who was both a pro and ran an amusement company. He would repeatedly, so I'm told, buy in a new machine, keep it in his kitchen for a while until he'd made a good fist of learning it, and then put it out into the wild. I don't know if he's a likely suspect or not; I've rather lost touch with my contacts from around there.

grecian · Post by **grecian** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:34 am

cool wrote:I was barred by the manager at eastbourne pier after just one win (I believe that was run by Crown?), but fortunately I got the ban rescinded by approaching the top company management. Got a lot of flak for paying Tesco garages in pound coins- not anymore got a letter from Head Office,Dundee saying that theyve got to take them! Even had a total dimwit inform me that paying more than £5 in pound coins for petrol isnt legal tender.What is it then?

You were quite right Cool - pound coins in any amount are legal tender, although that's not the case for coins in lower denominations, which are subject to a cap above which they may be refused: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_tend ... ed_Kingdom .

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:51 am

good spot, thanks Grecian. i knew the basics but always interested to learn about the coin of the Realm.

ggdr · Post by **ggdr** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:54 pm

There used to be a link-up Millionaire in Sheffield's student union bar, which had a £200 jackpot. The one time I won it, my winning question was about who ran the first sub four-minute mile, and was by far the most difficult one of the fifteen.