WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en-GB

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I'm in Hull, a small seaside town near Boston
in the northeast United States.

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I grew up visiting the British equivalent
of towns like this, and sure,

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it's the middle of winter,

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it is so bitterly cold here
that the ocean foam has frozen.

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There aren't any tourists, nearly everything's
closed for the season,

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but this town still feels a little like home to me.

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There is one place on the seafront here
that's open specially today though.

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And it's the last play-for-cash
Fascination Parlour in the world.

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- A lot of these did
exist back in the day.

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I'm not exactly sure how many, all I do
know is: this is the longest standing.

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A hundred years old last year.

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It was transported up here sometime over
the past century from Coney Island

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and now sits here on Nantasket Beach.

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There are 64 machines here,

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so on a busy night here we'll
have 64 players.

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The game begins with
your bill on the glass,

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we'll range anywhere from a quarter

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to a dollar and maybe two
dollars at a point in time.

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We have the entertainment
and gaming licence

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for anyone to come in and play,
as long as you're over 18 years old.

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It is a game of skill.

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Like everything in life, there is some luck that goes into it,

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but certainly there are some skilled players
that I have witnessed over the past year.

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- So here are the rules:
roll the balls into the holes.

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Each time you sink a ball,

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the corresponding light
on the board switches on.

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First to get a line of five,
horizontal, vertical or diagonal, wins,

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or in some cases, first to
light up the whole board.

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And here, you win cash.

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There are other Fascination Parlours

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but this is the only one
where you're not playing

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for tokens you can
redeem, you're not playing

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against the house, you are
playing against everyone else.

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And if win, you're taking their money.

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With the house taking a cut, of course.

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But it is winter, it's the off-season,
there are no tourists,

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so today I am just playing
against Chas, the owner.

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Do you have three balls there?

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- I do, I'm ready to go,
how 'bout yourself?

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- Alright, so it's a dollar?

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- Alright dollar on the glass.
- Dollar on the glass.

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Where's my dollar bill?

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Think I might be out,
but let me double check.

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- Do you need to borrow a dollar(?)
- I think I do.

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[laughs]

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Thank you sir.

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- Alright dollar on the glass.
- Dollar on the glass.

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- Alright, good luck Tom.
- Alright.

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- Three, two, one, roll 'em.

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[balls rattling]

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- So, we're playing to cover here.

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- Playing to cover.
- Okay.

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- [CHAS] "It is winter right now,

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"so the plan for the next few months
is to reestablish the arcade,

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"shake it up a little bit in there,

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"meaning we're looking to make it easy

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"for everyone to join,
understand the rules,

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"and get in here and be a part of the fun."

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- How do you aim?

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- [CHAS] "Every so often, these
games will peter out because of their age,

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"and there's a local gentleman

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"who comes in on a weekend,
fixes them for us,

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"so we get right back at it the next week.

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""It is still running on
century-old technology,

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"just a few different components
are changed in and out, of course.

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"They are all tied together into one circuit
and work amongst themselves."

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- Am I in the lead?
I think I'm in the lead, just.

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- Oh yeah, it's by three or four there!
I gotta catch up.

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[CHAS] "I think there's a place
for it to expand and grow

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"and be in a lot of different
places throughout the world

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"but the reason it isn't
everywhere is, I think,

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"we are a part of the technological era,

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"and with different ways
that you can stay busy nowadays,

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"cell phones and gaming consoles,
televisions,

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"there are other things that pull away
from old-fashioned fun, if you will."

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- It's just not... yes, okay, three!
I've got three, you've got four.

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[CHAS] - "We're going to continue to build
off of the history that Fascination,

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"here on Nantasket Beach,
has had for decades.

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"I've heard numerous stories of the folks

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"that used to run this over
the past five or six decades,

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"even more, and I wish
these walls could talk

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"because there would be
a lot to talk about."

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- Oh, come on, I've got one.

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[TOM] "What I love about this is that these are

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"century-old machines,
built with the same relays

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"that powered old telephone exchanges,
and they're all interlocked together,

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"in one really complicated circuit.

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"No microelectronics, no wifi, just a lot of
things that go clunk and buzz."

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[CHAS] - "So when someone lights up the board,

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"everyone on the sidewalk,
everybody in here

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"can hear it and they know about it.

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"There's usually cheering,
all the lights on the board go off

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"and the gentleman calling the game,
or the woman calling the game,

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"will make the announcement that
the winner is at, for example, 'table 13!'"

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This has got to be it, come on.

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- I've hit the one next to the one I need

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six times now.
- Game over, Tom!

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[bell ringing]
Winner, winner!

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Good game sir, I'll take
that and I'll take that.

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- Yep, so close.

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[bell ringing, then stops]

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That was genuinely fun.
- That was, isn't it?

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The cool thing is, you get these folks

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who have never played
before, they sit down,

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have just as much fun as we just had

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and whether they've played
it once or twice before,

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next thing you know they're here

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for three hours long, and as you can see,

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it seems easier than it actually is.

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- Yeah, cause the first one's like,
oh, I'm lighting everything up,

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and then, you cannot nail the one.

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- Yeah, you cannot, you look and you try

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probably twelve times.
- Yeah. [laughs]

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Thank you.
- Yes sir, thank you Tom.

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- Thank you to Chas and all the team here
at the Paragon Boardwalk.

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You can pull down the description

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for more about them and
about the Fascination Parlour.