College bar games make over £200 a week

Information released by Durham University has estimated that the 22 games located in college bars make £201 a week in total.

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Information released by Durham University has estimated that the 22 games located in college bars make £201 a week in total. The list includes quiz machines, jukeboxes, the pool table in Hatfield and the pinball machine in Trevelyan College.

Stevenson and St John’s College are the strongest performers, both raking in £25 a week while the quiz machine in Ustinov only brings in £2.50.

Honourable mentions go to St. Cuthbert’s, which, packing two juke boxes and two quiz machines in their arsenal, brings in a solid £19 a week. The presence of a pool table has boosted Hatfield’s earnings to £20 a week.

One Cuths student commented on the success of his college’s bar machines, “it helps that the bar is open all day from 12.30pm. Consuming large quantities of alcohol might also impair one’s judgment, especially when questions like ‘Who co-wrote Fawlty Towers with John Cleese?’ come up.”

On the other end of the scale, poor performances have seen Grey, St. Mary’s and John Snow’s earnings all slide to between £5-6 a week. Other Hill Colleges Butler, Van Mildert and St. Aidans failed to breach that elusive £10 mark.

John Snow president Chris Howard puts the poor figures down to a lack of custom at the college bar. “Our students don’t want to spend time in there and it’s only when we’ve got socials or formals taking place that it has any activity”, he commented.

The majority of the games are owned by outside companies, which take a share of between 50-70%. Stevenson is one of five colleges that was able to secure 50% of the profits and is reaping the rewards with £300 a term to the war chest.

St Hild & Bede failed to secure a share and its quiz machine gives all profit to the supplier. St John’s is the only college that rents its juke box, at a cost of £33 a week, which falls short of its estimated £25 a week earnings.

According to the university, all profits are spent on “improvement of facilities for the benefit of members of the Club”. According to Matthew Watson, the Bar Steward at Mary’s, profits will be going to the redecoration of the bar.

The average weekly income for Hill colleges is £10.45, which falls short of the £19.20 average set by the Bailey. Whether this difference can be accounted for by adeptness at answering quizzes is another question.