The amusements veteran has seen an increase in adverts for unlicensed sellers offering machines both for sale and for commercial operation, warning his contacts against dealing with such traders.
“I’m seeing more and more people actively selling machines and operating machines commercially without paying a licence. I have no problem with competition, but it must be a level playing field.” Ian Eason
He also pointed out the growing frustrations across the industry and urged the illegal traders to consider the dangers, noting that legitimate operations are becoming more inclined “to grass you to the Commission if you don’t hold a licence.”
Eason would prefer the illegal traders to come into the fold and legalise their practices and run legitimate GC approved operations. Selling illegal machines, he says, is dangerous not just to the illegal sellers, but the operations that buy the machines – many inadvertently. And that is a worry across the industry he argues.
“People should avoid dealing with companies that don’t hold a licence, they are the scourge of our industry and are causing problems in the background. They will cost us all money long term.”
Despite being warned about this growing threat over many, many years, the Commission is yet to make any significant strides towards slowing the rot. If anything, the black market appears to be growing faster than ever, leading some operators to lose faith in the regulator.
“They do fail to protect the companies that have all in place,” commented Martin Richardson, owner of the Happidrome in Southend.
Eason agreed that “the Commission takes an age looking at anything”, while another comment detailed how the regulator had been eager to punish him – for selling antiques – and yet does nothing about illegal machines.
“They were persecuting me selling antiques and doing nothing about the chancers,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Commission continues to play down the black market at every opportunity, often accusing the industry of overstating the threat. That posture, however, looks weak at best, a dereliction of duty at worse when the regulator is pointed, as it regularly, to the several hundreds of machines being advertised on e-Bay and other social media platforms daily.
But when licensed operators have to spend almost £6,000 before all their other expenses, the unlicensed sellers gain a significant commercial headstart. The only recourse for legitimate businesses is to steer operators away from black market machines and to report the unlicensed sellers to the Commission.
Unfortunately, this process of reporting to the regulator is currently being done, with the trade associations, too, keeping watch; action from the Commission, however, is yet to be seen. Whether cases are being prepared behind the scenes, is not known; the track record over 16 years suggests that this is highly unlikely.
As one machines distributor noted at the bacta Convention weeks ago shortly after a question on the matter was directed at GC chief Andrew Rhodes, “they’re not interested in any of that – there’s no glory headlines in catching the back-street machines seller. It makes you wonder, who’s more interested in keeping gambling safe and legal – because it certainly isn’t the Commission when it comes to illegal machines.”
