How old do you have to be to play the quiz machines in pubs (uk)?

Question

I dont mean the fruit machines just the quiz ones.

My local says my son cant play it yet will sell him a bingo ticket which costs more and the prize is higher!

Its a members club if that makes a difference.

Answer 1

A grey area?

You need to be 18 to play.

Answer 2

they are classed as gaming machines so your son would need to be 18 - they are also breaking the same law selling him bingo tickets

Answer 3

im a junior member at a private members club and i am allowed to play the quiz machine, even 5 year olds play it!

Answer 4

You have to be 18 to play any kind of gambling machine, including quiz ones, however for a lottery ticket, which I assume would include a bingo ticket the age is 16.

Answer 5

Very grey area.

The early 'coinmaster' machines only had a limited number of questions, and with a bit of observation you could soon beat them.  There was no doubt about it, these were free-beer machines and (for a while) proof that there was a God in Heaven.

You could argue that these were a game of skill, similar to darts, and therefore not covered by the gaming acts.

The later versions of quiz machines included 250,000 questions per disc or more.  Many of these questions were deliberately obscure and had answers that differed in (for example) only one decimal point digit of a number.  There was no way anyone could know the answers, and these were games of chance -

The Quiz Machines were originally designed to be able to beat the gaming act, by not coming under the definition of a game of chance.

Which ones now do, or do not, require licenses - is something for the Gaming Board to decide.