Fruit Machine Chat

What a shower of shite. Nasty Vamp and Raiders, low percentages. Machines need to be full and even then there's a risk of losing. Only good for £5 Simpsons and that's on 5p play...yawn!!
80% on lo-techs and standard %s on Chuzzy kit, Section 16s. 86/90 on Double Deckers.
Waste of time. Will definitely take my key next time.

can't say i ever bother in there or arcades full stop. just the extreme thats done 9/10 visits.

Arthur Holland is a tight money grabbing piece of work.
He has no sense of customer service, and as a result I'm sure does much worse than his Thomas leisure counterparts.
I was barred from my local Holland Park for no reason whatsoever, he knew that I worked as a teacher therefore wasn't a shark just freeloading all day long, he even left a set of keys in a golden game once which I promptly returned. He didn't even have the guts to tell me to my face, or why I was barred, but the usual I'm sure applied...anybody with an ounce of knowledge must be milking the machines when ready, so bye bye for me.
Having said that, the double decker in Thomas's is on 86/90%.
He was so tight he wouldn't even by a litre of dilute orange to give the customers a cold drink in the Summer.
Can't see the wood for the trees that one.

You're telling me Kid, that place is a heap. I was also barred from Holland Park about 5 years ago. That was for getting a few mystery win jackpot barcodes from Fight Night (the best of the barcode Maygays), the icing on the cake was getting a mixed bar win on Pinball Wizard which exchanged into a 3 nudge win for yellow bars for a fiver. The jumped up old hag in there didn't like that and asked me if "I was a mechanic", to which I thought she wanted her car fixing, so I replied "nope, but I did change a distributor cap on a Ford Mondeo once." At this point a very rotund gentleman(?) pootled into the establishment and she asked me to tell him the machines i had won on, I didn't let on much, but as I had a hi/lo wotsit thing on Sonic The Hedgehog go for about £20 and I can't remember the name of the feature now but you could hi/lo to it from the loop the loop and most of the time it gives £4/£5 but in this instance it went mad, which is NOT something you get at Holland Park now, this sentence is so long, the inevitable happenned I was asked to leave and not come back although she was actually terribly nice about it unlike that hag from Time Out (since gone - both Time Out and hag I believe).

Right. Where were we? Yes anyway, I snuck in back when they had £15 Pie and that was ok for a punt now and again. It's real 70% stuff there now though. I mean even the services feels better with =6%, it's all old Barcrest 70% guff now. THey've really lowered the %s. Hi-tech %s were 86 when I was barred, then down to 80% in the day of the Pie. Now it's all 70% were possible. Everything is a nasty as can be. Lucky Strike full up and took £23 to get a gamble to Gold Rush. Space Raiders gave me £7 on my first board, was looking ok with landing on bonus on red board and nudges and then died. Took £70 for a £30 MS no afters. Near full as well. Vamp is the non picking version I can tell. I can tell 'em a mile off. Thankfully scraped loads of uSTNW etc. and then it gave the kind of start that a picking Vamp gives after three solid clean picks. Definitely a non picking Vamp. I didn't chase it to see if I was right.

I have never been offerred a drink whilst in there. There is no customer toilets. I was once short paid by £12 and told to come in the week after. I came in the week after and they said "You should have come in last month, we have no records in the book."

It's a tight fisted junk hole. No new hi-techs, latest is probably Lucky Strike. I popped in for old time's sake and regretted it. he also has another shop in Leic. now. I played the Extreme and it was good for a few quid, only as a clueless guy had played it after Eddie I bet, probably lucky on my timing. Same old shit, no payouts for IOU, £11 for a board on YDD, non picking Vamp. No one in there though. Thomas are not brilliant, but they're better than Arthur Holland by a long shot. Much better. I would always go into their shop on The High Street as you get drinks, sometimes snacks etc

The best chain of arcades in terms of service are Showboat. Showboats offer the best promotions, percentages and service. Not saying much in this Industry but although essentially the same family, Showboat pisses over Thomas's.

That said about Arthur Holland his shop by The Haymarket is quite busy usually, probably as it's a prime location near the bus station. People get bored waiting for buses and it's such a busy location.

Streakypoos wrote:The best chain of arcades in terms of service are Showboat. Showboats offer the best promotions, percentages and service. Not saying much in this Industry but although essentially the same family, Showboat pisses over Thomas's.

agreed, showboats are great. they always offer you refreshments, when you want change they come straight over with there bumbag some of the promotions are quality.

bigv038 wrote:

Streakypoos wrote:The best chain of arcades in terms of service are Showboat. Showboats offer the best promotions, percentages and service. Not saying much in this Industry but although essentially the same family, Showboat pisses over Thomas's.

agreed, showboats are great. they always offer you refreshments, when you want change they come straight over with there bumbag some of the promotions are quality.

Double agreed. I quite will happily drive the 15 miles to Loughborough to play the 3 showboats there for a day than set foot in a Holland Park. The Thomas' is well covered by regulars but does have a nice selection.
It's all about service and half decent profiles/percentages. However even the staff at the Showboats are commenting on how the place is going down hill since being taken over by Riva.
They do have the best promos by far. A mate of mine walked all over the last promotion they had, it was an unlock the chest type affair...hourly draws for a month awarded a pick of a key from inside the chest plus £3 free plays. At the end of the month on one final Saturday you bring your key back and see if you can open the chest for £50, if not consolation of £5 free plays.
My mate is in there most days all day as a regular player so started winning a few keys. He soon noticed that there was only one type with a winning cut so soon fished around for these when he won. I think he got about 6 winning keys in the end out of a possible 10 £50 winners.

The Quicksilver here is pretty good these days. With a big sainsburys being next door, theyre always supplied with sarnies, hot drinks, cold drinks (coke etc), squash, crisps, biscuits and sweets. You can get a whole lunch and not pay a penny - great!

Mattb wrote:The Quicksilver here is pretty good these days. With a big sainsburys being next door, theyre always supplied with sarnies, hot drinks, cold drinks (coke etc), squash, crisps, biscuits and sweets. You can get a whole lunch and not pay a penny - great!

always a bonus if you go in and win aswell, free food and an earner you cant beat it!

agreed quicksilver has great service, i more or less know everybody who works in there because ive seen there faces few times a week for the last few years so your more or less gaurenteed a bacon and egg sarny when you walk in there in the morning.