JPM slot machines came from a South Wales maker that a 1987 account named as probably the leader of the British fruit machine market. JPM is best remembered for its 1994 Monopoly quiz machine, the first to charge 50p a play and the first to use a touch screen instead of buttons.
JPM was a South Wales firm, one of many that grew out of the Ferry Road works in Cardiff.
In 1987 it was described as probably the UK's leading fruit machine maker, ahead of Bell-Fruit and Barcrest.
Its Monopoly SWP (1994) was the first 50p-play quiz machine and the first with a touch screen.
Founding date, owners and closure are not confirmed in any published source we checked.
Base
South Wales
Roots
Offshoot of the Ferry Road, Cardiff machine trade
1987 position
Probably the UK market leader
Best-known machine
Monopoly SWP (1994)
Firsts
50p-play quiz machine; touch-screen controls
Founded
Not confirmed
What were JPM slot machines?
JPM built amusement-with-prizes machines, the pub and arcade cabinets most people in Britain call fruit machines, and the quiz games that stood beside them. The company traded as JPM and JPM International. It belongs to the land-based side of the industry: its products were physical machines rented to pubs, clubs and arcades by operators.
Hard facts about the firm are scarce. Its founding year, founders and later owners do not appear in any source we could verify, and the main reference page about it was blocked when checked. What can be stated with confidence is where it came from, where it stood in 1987 and what its most famous machine did first. That is what this page covers; the manufacturers hub has the other makers.
JPM and the Ferry Road family tree in Cardiff
South Wales was the heartland of British machine making. InterGame columnist David Snook describes how, after 1965, Morris Collings and his sons set up Automatic Coin Equipment, later ACE, on Ferry Road in Cardiff. Key staff learned the trade there and then left to start their own businesses, and JPM is named among those offshoots.
Some firms named as Ferry Road offshoots
Firm
Known for (where sourced)
JPM
Fruit machines; Monopoly SWP quiz machine (1994)
Coinmaster
Quizmaster (1985), the first UK quiz machine
Gemini, Thesis, Qual-Tec, Lyngard, Summit and others
Named in the same list; details not covered here
The same column notes that Bell-Fruit, in Nottingham, was for many years the only geographical rival to South Wales and produced almost no spin-off firms. Electrocoin's Bar-X was also first built on Ferry Road; see Electrocoin slot machines for that thread.
JPM slot machines at the top of the 1987 market
The best evidence of JPM's size is a 1987 article reproduced by the Lenton Local History Society (opens in a new tab). It describes JPM as a South Wales firm and 'probably the market leaders', with Nottingham's Bell-Fruit and the Bass-owned Barcrest sharing second place. Five big British makers were competing for about 60,000 pub and arcade machines a year.
The machines of that era paid small prizes. Gaming Board rules allowed a pub or arcade machine to pay at most £2 in coins or £4 in tokens for a 10p stake. Club jackpot machines could reach £150 for 20p. Compare that with today's limits below.
Pub and club machine limits: 1987 compared with today
Machine
1987 stake and prize
Today's stake and prize
Pub or arcade fruit machine
10p; £2 cash or £4 tokens
Category C: £1; £100
Club jackpot machine
20p; up to £150
Category B3A: £2; £500 (lottery games only) or B4: £2; £400
Quiz machines arrived in British pubs in 1985 with Coinmaster's Quizmaster, and other makers quickly followed. JPM's Monopoly SWP, released in 1994, moved the format on in two ways recorded in Wikipedia's quiz machine history (opens in a new tab): it was the first quiz machine to charge 50p a play, and the first to use touch-screen controls rather than buttons.
SWP stands for skill with prizes. Board game and TV quiz themes were popular through the late 1980s and 1990s, and JPM is listed with Coinmaster, Barcrest, Bell-Fruit, Maygay and Ace-Coin as a leading SWP maker of the period. Our page on what an SWP machine is explains the trade term.
How a pub quiz machine game runs
Designs varied, but the basic loop of a 1990s-style quiz machine is easy to describe. The details below are general, not a description of any one JPM model.
Insert the stake. Early machines took 20p; Monopoly SWP set 50p as the price of a play.
Answer multiple-choice questions against a timer, touching the answer on screen on later machines.
Climb a prize ladder with each correct answer, with the option to collect at certain points.
Lose the game on a wrong answer or when the timer runs out, unless a help or pass is available.
Collect any prize reached, paid by the machine up to the advertised jackpot.
The legal idea is that a player must be able to win by skill alone. In practice, Wikipedia notes, makers set the skill needed for the top prize so high that it is virtually impossible to reach, and question banks grew and spoiler questions appeared through the 1990s to limit large wins.
Because SWP prizes are not fixed by law, they moved with the market. Quiz machines started at 20p a play with a £10 top prize. The top prize rose to £12 in 1988 and to £20 around 1991. In the late 1990s a few machines offered £40, while many new ones offered as little as £5 to frustrate professional players who memorised question sets and toured pubs. Most machines now offer a nominal £20 for 50p, and some £40 for £1.
These figures describe the quiz machine trade as a whole, as published in Wikipedia's quiz machine article. No JPM-specific prize figures were found.
How JPM-era fruit machines handled payouts
British fruit machines of the 1980s and 1990s were built around a target payout percentage, often managed by compensated software that tightens or loosens over a cycle of play. Features such as nudges, holds and a feature trail gave players decisions, but the overall return over a cycle was set in advance.
A worked example with 1987 limits: 200 games at 10p is £20 staked. If a machine was set to return 75%, the long-run average is £15 back and £5 kept, though a session could end anywhere from nothing to several £2 prizes. That 75% is purely illustrative: no JPM percentage is published. Modern machines must display their target return, and our page on fruit machine payouts explains how to read it.
What happened to JPM?
No source we could verify sets out JPM's later ownership or closure. The Gambling Commission's business register lists a JPM Interactive Limited under account 36943, but whether it is linked to the original JPM International is not confirmed. You can search that name on the Gambling Commission's business register (opens in a new tab) to see what it is licensed for.
The wider Welsh trade shrank over time. InterGame's Snook writes that the UK once had about 21 active AWP producers, and that by 2007 Wales had around 20 suppliers, mostly of parts. Our history of slot machines in Britain covers the decline and the move to digital cabinets.
Old JPM slot machines: collecting and museums
Old JPM cabinets turn up in private collections and at specialist sellers. Before buying any old gaming machine, read our guides to collecting vintage slot machines and owning a slot machine and UK law, because using a machine for gambling outside a licensed or permitted venue is a different matter from owning one.
Fruit machine and quiz style games online
JPM machines are not available online, and online casinos do not run skill quiz machines. What you can find are online fruit slots that use the classic symbols and sometimes holds and nudges. Online games follow different rules from pub machines: a £5 stake cap per spin for over-25s, £2 for 18 to 24-year-olds, 2.5 seconds minimum per spin and no autoplay.
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Frequently asked questions
Who were JPM?
JPM, also known as JPM International, was a South Wales maker of fruit machines and pub quiz machines. A 1987 account called it probably the leader of the UK fruit machine market, ahead of Bell-Fruit and Barcrest. It is named as one of many firms started by people who learned the trade at the Ferry Road works in Cardiff. Its founding year and later owners are not confirmed. Our Bell-Fruit page covers the Nottingham rival.
What was JPM's Monopoly quiz machine?
Monopoly SWP was a skill-with-prizes quiz machine that JPM released in 1994. It is recorded as the first quiz machine to cost 50p a play and the first machine to use a touch screen rather than buttons. Board game and TV quiz themes were popular in pubs at the time. No reliable source gives its prize table, so none is quoted here. See skill with prizes machines for how such games work.
Was JPM based in Cardiff?
JPM is described as a South Wales firm, and InterGame names it among the companies spun out of Automatic Coin Equipment on Ferry Road, Cardiff. Its own address and factory location are not confirmed in any source we could check, so the safest statement is that it came from the Cardiff machine trade. South Wales was the centre of British machine making for decades. Our Britain slot history tells that wider story.
Is a quiz machine the same as a fruit machine?
No. A quiz machine, or SWP machine, is in law a game of skill, so it sits outside the gaming machine categories and has no legal stake or prize limit, only an informal agreement with the trade body Bacta. A fruit machine is a game of chance with legal limits: £1 stake and £100 prize for Category C in pubs. Both often stand side by side in pubs. Read what an SWP machine is for more.
Can you still play JPM machines?
Possibly, in a handful of places, but there is no published list. Older cabinets have largely been replaced by digital multi-game machines in pubs, and quiz machines moved to multi-game terminals from the early 2000s. Old JPM units appear in private collections. Any machine in a venue must meet current category rules, so check the label for its category and return. Our pub slot machines guide explains what pubs may offer today.
How much did JPM fruit machines pay out?
No payout percentage for any JPM machine is published, so none can be quoted. In 1987 the legal maximum prize on a pub machine was £2 in coins or £4 in tokens for a 10p stake, whoever made it. Machines were designed around a target return, often managed by compensated software. Modern machines must display their target percentage on the label. Our page on how much fruit machines pay out shows worked examples.
Who owns JPM now?
No verified source says. The Gambling Commission's register lists JPM Interactive Limited under account 36943, but its link to the original JPM International has not been confirmed. Reports that JPM became part of larger groups could not be checked, so they are left out here. If you need certainty, search the business name on the Commission's public register. For the companies that do supply British pubs today, see who makes UK fruit machines.
Why were there so many fruit machine makers in South Wales?
Because one works trained most of them. After 1965 Morris Collings and his sons set up Automatic Coin Equipment, later ACE, on Ferry Road in Cardiff, and staff who learned the business there went on to found firms including JPM and Coinmaster. Few spin-offs came from Nottingham's Bell-Fruit by comparison. By 2007 the remaining Welsh firms were mostly parts suppliers. The manufacturers hub lists the makers we cover.
Are pub quiz machines gambling?
In law, a genuine skill-with-prizes machine is not a gaming machine, because a player must be able to win by skill alone. Any element of chance would make it a game of chance and bring it under gambling law. In practice the top prize is set very hard to reach, so most players pay in more than they win, much as with a fruit machine. Treat either as paid entertainment. See skill with prizes machines for the detail.
Did JPM make online slots?
No online JPM slots are recorded in any source we checked. A company called JPM Interactive Limited holds a Gambling Commission account, but what it supplies and whether it descends from the original JPM is not confirmed. If you want the fruit machine feel online, studios such as Barcrest and Inspired build fruit-style games. Start with our guide to online fruit slots and look for the studio name in the game's help screen.
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