Gaming Machine
Shift Handbook & Logbook

Before the routine, three facts change how the bookwork actually works today.

The society owns the machines and the money in them. The cash in the hopper, the notes in the stacker and the gaming float are all the society’s funds held in trust. The venue is paid a commission for hosting, but gaming profit is never the venue’s money to spend — it’s banked to a dedicated gaming account.

Most metering is now automatic. Machines are wired to the Electronic Monitoring System (EMS), which reads each machine’s turnover and cancelled-credit meters centrally in real time. A lot of the “record the totals” work is done for you by the EMS daily and weekly reports — your job is the cash controls the EMS can’t see: the float, manual payouts, hopper refills, faults, and reconciling the physical cash to those reports.

The statutory reconciliation is weekly, not per shift. Gaming machine profit (GMP) is determined at close of play each Sunday and banked weekly. A per-shift cash clearance and reconciliation is a venue cash-control practice layered on top — strongly recommended, and what most duty managers run, but driven by the society’s manual rather than the Act.

1. Open up and power check. Unlock the gaming area and switch on / wake the machines per the society procedure. Confirm the site controller and EMS link show online — a machine offline to the EMS still takes money but isn’t being monitored, so flag it immediately.
2. Count the gaming float. Count the cash float held to pay manual payouts and refill hoppers. Record the opening float figure. The float is the society’s money and must stay intact — it is not topped up from, or dipped into for, the bar till.
3. Record machine numbers and opening meters. For each machine log its number / asset ID and, if your venue keeps a manual meter log, its opening turnover and cancelled-credit readings. Where the venue relies on EMS reports, note that and just record machine status.
4. Note anything already wrong. Any machine showing a fault, door-open, offline status, or a pending unpaid prize from the last shift goes on the log now, before play starts.
5. Set up host-responsibility duties. Self-exclusion register accessible, sweep record ready, harm-minimisation signage in place, R18 enforcement front of mind. Confirm the previous shift’s log was closed off and handed over.

Recording payouts — the “over a threshold” bookwork

Machines pay small wins automatically from the hopper. A win or collected credit the machine can’t dispense — a large prize, or a “cancel credit” above the hopper limit — is paid by hand from the float and must be recorded. That manual-payment record is the payout bookwork people mean when they say “payouts over a certain amount.”

Hopper refills

If you top up a machine’s hopper from the float, record it. Important rule: if the float is too short to cover a refill, you must perform and record a cash clearance first &mdash never let the float drop below the required level to fund a refill.

Faults, disputes and keys

• Log any equipment fault or player dispute on the fault / dispute record and call the society’s technician line. Don’t break a security seal or reopen a sealed machine yourself unless you’re authorised to.
• Any use of gambling-equipment keys is entered in the key register.
• Conduct and record venue sweeps at the required interval, watch for signs of gambling harm, and handle any self-exclusion request on the spot.

1. Secure the area. Machines are usually left running for the EMS; follow the society procedure for locking down the gaming area.
2. Reconcile the float. Opening float, plus any cash added, minus manual payments, minus hopper refills, equals your expected closing float. Count the actual cash. Record and explain any variance — don’t just balance it out.
3. Tally the vouchers. Add up the shift’s manual-payment and cancelled-credit slips and, where you can, cross-check the total against the EMS cancelled-credit figure for the period.
4. Do the cash clearance (if scheduled). Remove notes / cash boxes from each machine and record the amount per machine on that machine’s Cash Clearance Details Report, witnessed and signed, then secure it in the drop safe. Clearances are what feed the weekly GMP figure.
5. Complete the handover. Note outstanding faults, offline machines, the float position and anything the incoming duty manager needs.

At close of play each Sunday, GMP for the week is determined — broadly, money in through the machines less prizes and payouts out — and cross-checked against the EMS meters and the cash actually cleared. That profit is banked weekly into the dedicated gaming machine profit account. The society reconciles your venue’s banking back to the EMS, and every record above must be kept available for a DIA gambling inspector.

What lives in the logbook. Green = the EMS generates it for you; amber = you fill it in by hand on shift.