Looking Back, Looking Forward

Inevitably, since it's January, we find ourselves half looking back to the year just gone, half looking forward to what's in store for 2014.

It's been a busy year, with lots of business successes – and one huge achievement for me, personally. In climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in October 2013, I managed to raise over £8,000 for The Responsible Gambling Trust and Rays of Sunshine – a charity supporting children with serious illnesses.

Closer to home, 2013 saw the introduction of the Machine Games Duty, which has affected the great majority of our customers, and we've been making sure that all our customers are fully informed about the action they need to take.

In another landmark event last year, The Rank Group has seen the UK Court of Appeal deciding in favour of HM Revenue & Customs regarding claims for overpaid VAT on Rank's Gaming Machine income prior to December 2005. Potentially, there are wide-ranging implications for this ruling, and so we're watching this very closely.

Part of what lies ahead for 2014 is this blog, via which we'll post regular updates of what's going on in the gaming machine industry and in our own world. We'll be telling you about product launches; news stories affecting pubs and clubs; updates on security, tax and legislation. We'll give useful advice about increasing the income potential of your fruit machines, lottery products, pull-tab machines, pool tables, jukeboxes and multi-game quiz machines. We'll also give you ideas about fundraising in clubs.

As we enter our 70thyear of trading, we have every intention of continuing our pioneering approach, supporting our customers and making sure they get the most out of the machines they lease from us. Most importantly, we'll continue to supply the very best fruit machines and entertainment products to pubs and clubs all over the UK.

We welcome you to our blog; don't forget to check in regularly to make sure you don't miss out on what's happening. In the meantime, we wish you a very prosperous new year!