Chivenor, late sixties. Horror of horrors! A fruit machine had been installed in the bar. This could be adjusted to retain various percentages of money put in and was therfore set to maximise payout. At this time Saudi students used the bar but did not drink of course. However they spent most of their off time around said machine ( and large sums of money) generating lashings of profit for the mess, which if not used had to be sent off to a central fund. Not a good idea so various free entertainments in the mess thanks to our Muslim students.
And a thought crosses my mind, with the contraction of the RAF and closure of so many messes what happened to this central fund which we were told was to provide a start up float for new messes. There can't have been many opened since 1969! Maybe you should all be drinking for free on the bar profits of your predecessors!