which referring to fig1 show a gaming machine having a housing 1 with an upper front panel 2 operating buttons 3 a coin slot 4 and a payout opening 5 within the housing 1 there is a vdu 6 such as a crt with a screen 7 which can be seen through a window 8 in the upper front panel 2 the vdu 6 is connected within the housing 1 to a microprocessor based control unit 9 as also are a coin mechanism 10 a payout mechanism 11 the operating buttons 3 and alphanumeric digital led or lcd devices 12 13 14 visible on the front panel 2 alongside the screen 7 the screen 7 shows a square 10 u00d7 10 matrix 15 of square display positions 16 each of which is capable of displaying a symbol 17 selected from a range of such symbols as shown in fig2 the symbols 17 include a cherry picture u201c 7 u201d in two different colours one two or three bars in three different colours a special money bag picture and a combination of u201c 7 u201d and bar in use the player inserts coins into the coin mechanism 10 through the coin slot 4 sufficient to generate credit for play of one or more games a minimum stake.