If you read the tabloids you’re likely to have seen alarmist headlines in recent days, claiming that the new 12-sided £1 coin due to enter circulation in March 2017 “won’t work in slot machines”.
Depending on your choice of newspaper, you could be forgiven for thinking we are facing a coin-operated apocalypse, with some publications seeming to say the new coins cannot be used in slot machines at all.
But this is not the case – as we have mentioned in recent weeks, many gaming machines, pool tables, juke boxes and other coin-operated equipment should just need either a software update or a replacement hardware cash slot.
It’s important to do this promptly, so that when the new 12-sided £1 coin enters circulation in March 2017, all of your gaming machines are already equipped to accept it.
Remember also to make sure they do not continue to accept the round pound as payment once it is no longer legal tender.
We are taking enquiries now on this issue – so if you have slot machines in need of attention, we will be happy to help.
Incidentally, during the last few months of the round pound, it’s worth looking out for £1 coins minted in 2016, which will be the last circular £1 coins.
Although the Royal Mint has produced round £1 coins this year, they are only available as part of collectors’ sets – and will therefore only enter circulation if one of those sets is split up and spent as ordinary currency.
This should mean very few 2016 £1 coins ever go into circulation before the new 12-sided £1 coin replaces them in March – and that could ultimately make them worth much more than their face value in the years to come.
If you have any enquiries about retrofitting your gaming machines, pub pool tables and juke boxes to support the 12-sided £1 coin, or if you still need to upgrade note slots to accept the polymer £5 note, contact us immediately to make sure your machines are not paying out on non-legal tender.