Quiz Machine - Legal Grey Areas

Legal Grey Areas

An SWP machine must offer the chance to win the jackpot on every game, however the level of skill involved to do that is set so high as to be virtually impossible. Manufacturers have, at times, set the skill level so high that it is physically impossible to achieve this. Because there is no governing body for skill games, the only time this is brought into question is when the gaming authorities are alerted and take court action to prove or disprove that this is the case. In practise, this is very rare, as the gaming authorities have no jurisdiction over skill machines, and the only way for a prosecution to succeed is to prove that the game in question breaks the law in some way.

This can be done by proving that the machine differs to the legal definition of a skill machine which says that a player must be allowed to win prizes by skill alone. If there is an element of luck in the game it is automatically classed as a game of chance and is legally bound by the gambling commission legislation.

Many manufacturers push this boundary to the limit and sometimes into the grey area of legal definitions beyond.

The stake/prize level of a skill machine is also a grey area, as there is no legal limit on either, although most manufacturers abide by a gentleman's agreement with BACTA (a trade organisation) to limit both amounts to levels that are unlikely to attract the attention of legislators. Skill machines can legally be sited anywhere and played by anyone of any age, although there seems to be a lot of confusion about this, with some people assuming age limits and site restrictions must exist because of the similarity between these machines and AWP machines (fruit machines).