The playing of fruit and video machines emerged as predominantly a gregarious and peer group centered activity. The findings, which show the playing of fruit rather than video machines to be most likely to put young people between the ages of 10 and 16 at risk, fail to provide a strong case for imposing further restrictions on the use of amusement machines. In addition to existing restrictions, several additional measures might help to reduce the risk of a few young people falling into a pattern of excessive amusement machine playing. These include parental supervision and the provision of advice to teachers, social workers, youth workers, arcade managers, and voluntary agencies about ways to identify early signs of over-indulgence in amusement machine playing. 6 references