The Royal Mint introduced the £1 coin back in 1983, i remember the first fruits paying them out, i think the £4 razzle dazzle was one of the first fruits to pay them out in 1988, since then The Royal mint has produced billions of £1 coins, i also think the fruit machines was one of the reasons why the govenment kept the pound, can you imagine how 1 pound coins lay dorment in the fruit machines in the whole country, more of the fruit machines are always full & that includes the £5 jackpots, if they the Royal mint were to introduce the euro coin, it would have to destroy billions & billions of £1 coins, it will take a lot of hard work to convert all the fruit machines/hoppers etc, its a very simular reason why camelot are still in charge of the lottery, when Richard Brandson won the right to take over the lottery camelot refused to let him use there lottery machines meaning the government would lose hundreds of millions of pounds in lottery funding.
So the moral of this story is i think the £1 coin is here to stay. :P