Many pubs are soon to resume trading, and experts recommend testing the gaming room equipment beforehand to fend off any surprise failures.
Pubs in locked down segments of NSW are allowed to open the doors again from Monday (11 October), hopefully soon followed by those throughout Victoria.
The topic of equipment failure was broached in the recent Road Out of Lockdown Webinar, stemming from lessons learned last lockdown.
“If you haven’t left your machines on over the closed period, turn them back on now and work out how many you’ve lost and get in touch with your service provider to get them up and running before the 11th,” said Craig Laundy, face of Laundy Hotels and one of the webinar’s guest panellists.
EGM technician Paz Namroud, proprietor of Gaming Trader, says shutdown machines risk losing their power supplies or main boards.
“The gaming machines need to be cycled at least once a day. If this doesn’t happen, those components sometimes fail when you do turn them back on.”
Namroud advises that a major component failure could spell the end of the machine’s life.
“Sometimes it proves more cost-effective to get a new machine than repair the old one, as you may have to wait on parts or other things and it may not be worth it.”
The webinar also prompted Henry Kiwarkis from Banktech to remind operators to cash up all their ATMs, CRTs and Cash Recyclers and test them now, lest they encounter problems on opening day.
