At the Golden Horseshoe, Derek Martens, 36, a carpenter playing a lower-stake machine with a £35 jackpot, said: "Gambling is supposed to be about fun. You only bet what you can afford to lose but you want a little bit of a thrill that you might actually win big. You know a quid in the slot isn't going to get you the big one." Business was slow again in the Golden Horseshoe amusement arcade. The fruit machine lights were flashing but even on a warm winter's day, the punters were few.
For the Clarence Pier overlooking Portsmouth harbour, it was a familiar scene - a handful of customers where just a few months ago there had been dozens playing on the many gambling fruit machines.
The Clarence Pier, a 1960s concrete edifice has grown used to the decline afflicting traditional fruit machine gaming venues in British coastal towns.
Over the past seven years, a mixture of budget airlines and fierce competition in the leisure market has seen the number of visitors to the pier, just south of the city centre, fall.
Since September last year, proprietors of the rest of the UK's 1,000 remaining seaside amusement arcades - are warning without urgent Government intervention, up to half of a sector that employs 26,000 people and contributes £500m to the Exchequer will be wiped out.
The cause is an obscure change to the rules governing UK fruit machines on which the Golden Horseshoe and its like depend. Since the 2007 Gambling Act came into force on 1 September last year, a little-noticed clause has halved the minimum stake for players on the style of fruit machine that offers a jackpot of £500 from £2 a go to £1.
The number of the £500 jackpot fruit machines - which cost £6,000 each and represent the lifeblood of the seaside fruit machine arcade - was restricted to four per venue.
To the outsider, it seems a trivial adjustment and even a praiseworthy attempt to put a cap on the growing attractions of a burgeoning gambling culture. But according to the arcade and fruit machine industry, its effects have been devastating. Revenues have on average collapsed by more than a fifth, wiping out profit margins across the country and leaving many on the brink of collapse. In the meantime, new casinos have been allowed to introduce fruit machines where gamblers can bet up to £100 a time for five-figure jackpots.
"We rely on the income from these slot machines to keep the rest of the business going. The summer season will be absolutely crucial because we can't survive as things are."
The British Amusement Catering Trade Association (BACTA), is asking the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (The DCMS) to allow it to restore the £2 stake and implement a ratio system for the £500 jackpot machines so that they account for no more than 20 per cent of the fruit machines per venue.
An Early-Day Motion with cross-party support has been placed before Parliament asking for the gambling minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, to take urgent action. Nick Harding, Bacta's president, said the closure of arcades would push recreational gamblers to harder forms of betting. "The machines have just become less attractive to the players," said Mr Harding. "With a £2 stake the odds of a jackpot win were 250 to one and 92 per cent of what the machines took was paid out again. With a £1 stake the odds are also shorter.
"Without the arcades, the alternatives are harder forms of gambling such as betting shops or casinos. If the Government wants to reduce problem gambling, this is the wrong way of going about it."
Ministers have shown little sign of acceding to Bacta's requests, but say that they are engaged in "constructive dialogue" with the industry. A spokeswoman said: "It would be unusual for us to revisit an important part of a new piece of legislation so soon after it has been implemented."
