The pub was quiet apart from the beeping of a fruit machine being played by an elderly woman in the corner. She must have been inserting coins into the machine for upwards of half an hour without a payout. I’m not a gambler, but I can’t say I wasn’t tempted to have a go myself when she left, remembering what someone said about being much more likely to win if the person before you had played for a while without winning. I’m glad I didn’t, a group calling themselves The Fairplay Campaign have discovered that while these machines give the impression that the player is gambling their money, the results are actually pre-determined and the player is being defrauded. The site has links to emulation software so you can see how the machines work without losing your money.