Be Excellent To Each Other

I think with gambling addiction, one can become addicted to the chemicals that are produced within the brain as you gamble, particularly the quick outcome/quick fix 'hard' forms of gambling such as fruit machines? These chemicals - namely their constituents and actions - are very real, well documented and reasonably well understood. The fact that they are produced internally rather than introduced externally and 'voluntarily' as in the case of similarly addictive recreational drugs is to me a sermantic point. The fruit machine is, in effect, the hyperdermic syringe, albeit by proxy.

Just as for alcohol and many other drugs, the potential to be addicted to gambling will vary enormously from one individual to another. Whereas for one person, the long term casual playing of such machines 'from the change of a pint/round' may well be innocuous, for others such exposure will be very dangerous, presumably due to these differences in susceptibility.

Dopamine.

Same to you too, buddy!

Yup, I'm aware of all that. I'm just wondering though, as I've never particularly got a buzz from gambling (I think the most I've won was around £1k on an online machine and I didn't even notice - although some of the online slots don't make a big song and dance over the varying amounts won). I think I'm more hooked on the escapism side of things - when I'm gambling, I'm not doing 'normal' stuff.

Come on Guardian! Just walk into your nearest pub!

Sheesh.

It wouldn't be so bad if they were just a bit out of date (perhaps citing the last AWP jackpot of £35), but £50 has NEVER been a UK fruit machine jackpot.

Plus we've had £500 B3s in arcades for years and I believe casinos have £4000 jackpot machines now.

The agony and the ecstasy of gambling.

Now that I have Sony Vegas Movie Studio, the sky is the limit for shit graphics and overly flashy transitions.

I was a VT Editor in a previous lifetime, so I'm sure it'll all come back to me.

What's absolutely amazing to me is that the software I'm using cost £30, running on a PC you could build for about £600, and is better in every way than what I was using in 1999 on a Mac setup that cost in the long tens of thousands of pounds, with software that cost the best part of ten grand too. (Mind you, that was when 96GB of ultra-fast SCSI storage (the only hardware that could handle the bitrate of broadcast quality video) cost thousands and thousands pounds in itself.)

Impressive stuff.

Bellend.

Thanks Si. I love you too.

Anyway, what is this AE? Something where you can design your own fruity/artwork etc.?

Eh??

Do I know you?

That would be affirmative.

So who are you then?

Why's AE a bellend?

He's always been a bellend

NVM, in a silly mood.

I'm getting a Mr Coffey vibe

Ah, OK.

(I had to look up NVM on Urban Dictionary lol )

No nothing like that, I've just got some proper VT editing software on my PC, so now instead of uploading one tedious gambling clip at a time to my YouTube channel, I can instead edit them together into a blunderbuss of tedium.

The power of technology.

You untrendy old person you.

The windows are certainly cleaner.

That game looks like a duller version of the Rocky one..

Forced double/half is a right cunt! Good video though - didn't realise this was what was going on in here. I'll come back again!

Well they're both multi-line video slots, if that's what you mean

The USP of Ching Ching is that when you finally get all seven pieces of the puzzle to trigger the main free spins bonus round, whatever win you gain in that is subjected to a forced DOUBLE or HALF 'wheel of death' gamble - it's really quite tense.

The one time I got a substantial win on it (£120 from a 50p stake), it fucking halved it. There was lots of swearing on the video for that one.

Well both have free spins triggered by reels 1, 3 and 5 and are quite generous about giving extra ones during the free spins themselves.

How much did you put in and how much did you come out with?

Started with £300, finished with £294 - not bad for a few hours slotting.

(I originally deposited £150 last Friday, got that up to about £340 at the peak, and have been playing with that ever since.)

Obviously I lose in the long term, (as does anyone who plays random games with a house edge), but I can effectively 'pay' for my online slotting by winning consistently in the pubs which have compensated rather than random games, and compensated games can be beaten, again and again.

A double/half forced wager montage. FEAT TRANCE.

Cost me £125 to get this lot. Grrrr.

And another one, I lose the plot a bit at around 19m30s, but it was late, and I was quite drunk.

I'm not sure who has the most patience..

1) You - for playing that dull game for so long
2) Your wife - for putting up with your music
3) Me. For watching the video in its entirety.


In its defence, it looks like a half-decent game for playing out a wagering requirement as the losses seem pretty minimal.

The vast majority of it was 'after hours', I overlaid some trance for the bits that were during the day (including the clip where AE Jnr yelled at me to stop singing ), i.e. there wasn't actually any trance playing at the time, but generally speaking my slotting is after everyone else is in bed.

And needless to say I don't swear when AE Jnr is around!

Your video does show the amount of grinding it can take with online slots though. I'd probably be the same but much worse with the 'I'll just play till ... happens'.

It's just a question of discipline and knowing when to call the hunt off, TBH I don't have a problem with it these days. Online slots aren't like compensated AWPs where you can force an event, so if what you're after doesn't occur, there just has to come a point where you call it a day.

I deliberately grabbed every scatters bonus round for that FEATURE PRESENTATION, to show just how grindy they can be sometimes. I still had fun though

Hitman this week.

This game is 'pre-Absolution' though, so there are no nuns in it, sexy killer nuns or otherwise.



And this was followed by WAGERING HELL.

AE - have you played at any of the 'Rival' casinos like http://www.paradise8.com/? To sate my gambling cravings this past week I've just been playing for free on there and they're not too bad - not as slick as the Microgaming/Playtech slots but some of them are interesting, like Hole in Won (awful name, natch) which has a mini golf game in the bonus round.

Rival have got a really bad reputation, they've just about managed to get a couple of casinos onto the accredited list at Casinomeister, but they're effectively the modern day RTG, from back when RTG used to license out their software to any and all rogues on the planet.

Not sure I'd want to chuck any real cash at a Rival casino!

That said, I may have a look in free money mode, I have heard that some of their games are pretty good fun which appears to be your experience as well

Batman THE DARK KNIGHT.

It's a toss-up between which I found more boring, the online slot or the film.

I've watched a few of your videos, but there's no way I'm watching all that - it's a bloody dull slot. It's effectively a re-skinned LOTR, but seems to pay out less. On the subject of LOTR, it's odd that the version that's available now isn't the same one that came out initially. And I've noticed that on Ruby Fortune for example, LOTR isn't there at all, just Batman.

As you can tell from the above paragraph, I recently broke my no-gambling run. I reached the year mark and then caved in spectacularly. Still, at least I know I can do it, so I just need to start again.

The Dark Knight slot has replaced the LOTR slot at all Microgaming casinos, whether the licence had a time limit on it or something I don't know.

And yes, it is a clone of LOTR, as you'd be well aware if you'd sat through 42 scintillating minutes of my latest presentation! (And you'd get to see not one but TWO spins of the progressive reel!)



Oops

Better get back on track ASAP, as a lapse can turn into a disaster pretty quickly unless you get a hold of it.

I did notice one the other week that had them both. To me, LOTR, Dark Knight, Immortal Romance and Thunderstruck II are all much of a muchness.. great to look at, but can be incredibly miserly.

Yeah but at least IR/TS2 don't have the progressive contributions eating into the RTP.

The problem with a lot of new MG slots in general is that they're very high variance, which for a low-roller just looking for some decent play time, can make them very hard work.

If you want to try something a bit different (pretend money only devilman!!!!), have a look at Galewind software, they power the Pinnacle Sportsbook casino.

You can launch the free money casino from here - http://www.galewindsoftware.ca/homeframeset.htm?file=2

The interesting part about them is the incredible stats page they provide, which shows the slots all pay at 97.5% or higher, and includes chance of hitting the feature, progressive, etc along with what the variance is.

http://practice.galewindsoftware.ca/dem ... _stats.htm

Oof. Don't give up buddy, you can do it.

Cheers Grim.. I'll get there. It's just been a very expensive last month or so. Done it before, so I can do it again.

Haven't had a good weekend myself, need to get my arse out to the pubs to win some of my online losses back

Chasing losses is what gets me into problems in the first place. ;-)

There's a big difference between random games and compensated games though

I can consistently make money on the AWPs, it's just getting the motivation to go tramping around the pubs to do so.

Oh well, All Slots have a nice 100% match-up to a maximum of a £200, with a 30xB WR but they also use Clearplay, which is pretty unusual these days for Microgaming powered casinos.

I've lobbed £200 at it which gives me a £400 bankroll, and due to them using Clearplay I don't have to meet the WR before I can withdraw, although I will forfeit any bonus funds if I withdraw before I've done so.

If this is a bust out then I could have bought myself a 4GB GTX680 with what I've lost this weekend.

Fucking stupid gambling.

I never bothered with any bonuses in recent years - the wagering requirements were often too excessive for my liking. I used to hate the casinos that would credit your account with an unexpected bonus some time after making a deposit and usually while you were playing. When I'd complain about the bonus and asked for it to be removed, I was told that I had to have it removed before my next wager... bit difficult when I'd got it mid-spin!

Take one slot machine into the shower?

No, I play four at once, including one at £2 per spin in the hope of hitting the wheel 'SPIN' feature.

Bloody Microgaming and their quite impressive client software, apparently you can get 18 slots running at once in there

I think it's time for a serious deceleration after I've finished with this deposit......

I found that I could have about eight or nine tabbed slots open at once before my PC started grinding to a halt (this is with all my other applications open though). I didn't play them all at once though - I'd just have the tabs open to quickly switch.

I had a quick go of that Galewind stuff (on freeplay).. I quite liked the footy slot, but it takes an age for the feature to come in, which is a shame as it's not a bad one. On the plus side, at least your credit goes quite far it seems. All a bit dull compared to the likes of Microgaming/Playtech though.

Four is about my limit I think, what's dangerously alluring about it is I can choose four slots that all 'pause' if they hit some sort of bonus round, so I can simply rotate between the four games and get to see bonus rounds far more often, plus there's the air of mystery around not knowing what the three I'm not actively watching are doing.

Problem is of course, it's possible to lose on four slots simultaneously instead of just the one.....



Yeah they are a bit 'staid' but they do at least have a solid and audited 97.5%+ payout. Their Deal Or No Deal game is quite good fun (Take It Or Leave It I think it's called.) The Isis game is a right fucker, although in all fairness Galewind do flag it up as a high variance slot.

The CEO of Galewind Software is a fairly active poster over at the Casinomeister forums, it's quite interesting being able to discuss stuff with someone who can literally go and look at the source code of their games and come back with answers to questions.