AWPs in the UK are losing out to other forms of gambling, according to industry insiders, who cite the fixed-odds betting terminals in Britain’s bookmakers’ shops as the main culprit.

AWP income falling

Amusement with prizes games - Category C machines as they are called in Britain - have been in the country’s pubs for nearly 50 years, but since 2000 income has been halved, according to one major pub chain, JD Wetherspoon.

The company said that income from the machines had fallen from six per cent of its overall figures to three per cent. The machines comprise £48m of the chain’s £1.6bn revenues.

Another major pub chain, Punch Taverns, shows in its accounts that “machine and other revenue” has dropped by 16 per cent since 2011, to £12m from £14.3m.