"We were all prepared for the Friday, so the Wednesday was a bit of a nuisance really, we were short of a couple of machines," he admits. "But as we were at the Electrocoin Open Day we were able to have a game off the Barcrest stand after the event. I put it in the back of my estate car and we put it on site that evening."

Essex Leisure installed 12 machines on Wednesday June 10 at two sites in busy Liverpool Street Station. "We had to wait until the sites closed at 11.30pm before we could do the changeover," says Steve. "We did eight machines in one site and four in the other. We had a selection of AWPs from Barcrest, Bell-Fruit, Electrocoin and JPM. It is too early to say which machine is a front-runner but after the first week, takings overall in those sites were up by more than 50 per cent."

Steve and the team at Essex Leisure have now put around 300 new £70 machines out across their operations. "We have been working weekends and evenings - all hours. We plan to have a thousand machines out in the first eight weeks," he says.

Steve found that this changeover has gone a lot smoother than the last. "It has been more organised than the last stakes and prizes review," he says. "We have had more time to prepare and from day one nearly all the kits have been ready. Last time that was not the case. In some instances we had to wait almost six weeks for certain kits."

Certainly, the stakes and prize review couldn't have come at a better time for Steve's customers. "The pubs have been really suffering," he says. "We need to get them taking money, that's our concern. It is no good for us all if the pubs go downhill, if we can get the machine revenues up to where they were two or three years ago then that will do a lot to help."

On a personal front Steve is looking forward to a holiday. "I have got to let the lads in the office go first, but certainly my wife Trudie is looking forward to a couple of weeks away later in the summer. She hasn't seen much of me lately."

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