Over the next two or three years the pub fruit machine will grow into a very different kind of animal. Each machine will have five or six different games to play, targeted at different players. When a new hit game is created all pubs will benefit straight away, rather than most having to wait for elite gaming houses to pass on their cast-offs when the novelty wears off. And each pub will have its own choice of games, tailored to the local market.
The current decline in AWP machine takes will be reversed as a new audience become players. At least that's the vision of Paul Terroni, chief executive of the UK's leading machine operator, Inspired Gaming.
The secret lies in the concept of server-based gaming (SBG). Some 200 SBG AWP machines, branded The Player, have already been installed in pubs, and within the next couple of months this is expected to increase to 1,000. Unlike traditional fruit machines, games are downloaded via the internet from a computer in Inspired's headquarters. So you only ever need the one cabinet.
For Paul Terroni, the arrival of SBG, or video AWPs to give the idea a more user-friendly tag, is timely for pubs. "The smoking ban will bring a new audience to pubs who are not familiar with current AWP machines," he explains.
"Existing games are designed for the top two to three per cent of players. Our job is to create a varied product with a choice of five or six games that will allow new players to come into the market without being embarrassed and walking away because they don't understand the game. It's a great opportunity and a challenge."
That top two or three per cent of players, the hard core gamers, will contribute around 80 per cent of a pub's AWP machine take. So it's understandable that the few have dictated the development of games. The problem is that the core player spends more cash if they are challenged, so games have become increasingly complicated and tend to alienate potential new players - all at a time when a shrinking core is finding other ways to gamble and having to periodically stop feeding the machine to pop out for a fag.
But video AWPs enable pubs to continue to serve this player while reaching out to new audiences with simpler games - and make sure everyone keeps pace with changing game fashions.
"Before, if you got a good game, such as Deal or No Deal, you could hit only the top 10 per cent of pubs with it in the first wave," says Paul. "With video AWPs you can squirt out a hot game to everyone within 24 hours, so a player doesn't have to find the latest product by trawling round 10 or 12 locations.
"SBG will also grow the player base with games such as roulette and poker - games we have no real opportunity to test now."In the next six to nine months we shall find out what works best. When there are 3,000 to 5,000 machines out there we'll have the intelligence to tailor content to a particular pub.
"We already know that poker games go down well in London and Scotland prefers roulette. We'll be able to understand those kind of differences by postcode. We can then change games remotely and tailor the mix to the pub. That will be the key in the future."
Until then the tough part will be to get core players to accept machines which have a video screen instead of spinning reels. Licensees and their staff will have to take some of the responsibility by identifying core players and talking to them about video AWPs - "like selling a new beer," according to Paul.
"It will take time to convert the core player," he concedes. "With analogue they believe they have an element of control over what feature comes up - even though it's the same computer doing it.
"The difference is the way it's portrayed, so we have to try to represent the same feeling you get with spinning reels - then we'll have success."