Response To An Ft Article

Bryce Elder, writing in the Financial Times ("How much does Wetherspoon make from its gambling machines?", 24 July, 2026) asks whether Wetherspoon "makes more money on gambling machines than … on drinks or food".

Mr Elder then caveats his analysis by saying, "In many ways, it's a stupid question."

As his article says, fruit (or "gambling") machines accounted for 3.4 per cent of Wetherspoon sales in 2025.

They also account for 3.6 per cent of "gross profit", before the allocation of costs such as rent, business rates, energy, labour and so on.

It can be easily calculated that Wetherspoon's other sources of revenue (bar, food and hotel rooms) accounted for the remaining 96.6 per cent of sales - and for 96.4 per cent of gross profit.

However, Mr Elder's article then concludes that "Spoons might be making more from gambling than food"- which, sorry to say, is wildly out of kilter.

In fact, food sales are 11.0 times higher than machine sales and food gross profit is 10.2 times higher.

So how did Mr Elder make this egregious error?

It appears that he has allocated all Wetherspoon's costs and overheads, other than fruit machine rentals, to bar, food and hotel rooms.

You don't need to be J.K. Galbraith, Milton Friedman, or even Rachel Reeves, to regard this as voodoo economics.

Without all the other costs of the business, and without the customers they attract, there could be no fruit machine income, so, logically, the machines have to bear their share of overheads.

Mr Elder certainly misled himself by calling Wetherspoon's fruit machines "casino-style".

In fact, as licensing lawyers will attest, the type of machines allowed in pubs are quite different to casinos, bingo halls, members' or miners' clubs.

Pub "stakes" are much lower, as indeed are the prizes which can be won by customers.

In addition, Mr Elder assumes that machines are a "useful source of growth ".

In fact, Wetherspoon's machine sales, reflecting the general experience of the pub industry, have decreased from about 7 per cent of sales at our 1992 stock market flotation, to 6 per cent in 2000, to 3.4 per cent today- even if there have been some years of growth during that period.

Even so, Mr Elder will have noted from Wetherspoon's accounts that the government received £18.2 million in machine gaming duty from Wetherspoon in our last financial year, so his hypothesis, that there is a possibility of "the profits (machines) generate being relegated to zero", would come at a high cost to the Treasury, with little evidence of public benefit.

Mr Elder's article also refers to Wetherspoon pubs as "grotty". Notwithstanding his oblique literary allusion, this is highly inaccurate.

Wetherspoon has, for example, better local authority "scores on the doors" hygiene ratings than any substantial pub company, with an average of 99.2 per cent of pubs scoring a maximum five out of five.

Wetherspoon also has more of its pubs recommended in CAMRA's Good Beer Guide than any other company, has 100 per cent accreditation from Guinness and, probably, has won more design awards than any company, ever, in UK history.

Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin said:

"I've been on the other side of the fence from the Financial Times on the two main financial debates of the last 30 years- whether the UK should join the euro and whether the UK should remain in the EU. At the risk of immodesty, I'm pleased to say that this fruit machine debate makes it three- nil to Timbo."