Initially, get yourself a license from the gambling commission. It’s simple enough to do, just follow this link. http://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/Licensing-compliance-enforcement/licensing_compliance__enfo.aspx
Your local council has to authorise it of course, but this is done through the commission itself. You'll also need an operating license and a personal license as well though. A lot of your costs will be ignored if you're opening up just one small arcade area in your pub and you’re a new business etc.
In terms of getting your machines into your pub, you've always got a big choice even if you didn’t want to buy from us for some strange reason.
You could either:
- Lease them. This may be a good choice if you don't have a lot of money to spend all at once. You’ll be paying a set amount per month for the contraption and get access to it obviously, so you can move cash around. This method means you'll get brand new pub machines and you also won't have to pony up the initial expenditure like you would if you purchased it outright. Renting isn't always economical, but it’s less expensive than purchasing a bundle of new pub machines, and you've not got the hassle of getting new machines to eventually buy while trying to get rid of your old ones either.
- Buy them directly from a supplier. Occasionally the same people that provide the rent service also sell them too. Here at Maxicoin we offer the profit sharing scheme instead of this service. You can be talking a quite a hefty sum for just one machine though. In which case…
- Purchase them off eBay or Gumtree if you look hard enough. Perhaps the cheapest option too, but there are lot of obstacles to deal with. Firstly, you don’t generally get any sort of guarantee with them, so if the machine breaks down, you’ll need someone to repair it. Also get used to changing a lot of light bulbs this way too, as well sorting out the chutes when they jam etc. When you either rent or purchase, you've normally got some sort of insurance for a set amount of time at least. Secondly, you'll get through a lot more machines which is a hassle if you don’t have much time to search for new ones. The machines will be a lot older and in bad condition so keep that in mind at all times when scouring the net.