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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 11:40 
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As someone who has never put a penny in a fruit machine and only ever gambles a few quid on the National, I would fully support the banning of Fruit Machines.

I believe I shared my mate's tale earlier in this thread. I saw him flush his university career down the toilet over the course of six months of fruit machine addiction. He was massively overdrawn on his bank account to the tune of over £2000, multiple maxed out credit cards, hardship loans from the university and every penny of his student loans gone. And no income. If he'd had access to other sources of money, he would have maxed them out to. He was ruined.

In the end he had to just jack it all in and go home. One morning, he woke up on a friend's sofa, rang his Dad to come and get him and just left everything that he had behind. It took him years to recover from it. He's doing ok now, but he was lucky he had an escape route and a loving family to take him back.

Moving fruit machines to casinos is no brainer.


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 11:46 
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:this:

I completely agree Davpaz, good shout imo. :)
Get rid of the fucking things, or at least confine them to casinos (and make sure they are random and fair, and payout resemble similar % to roulette and other casino games).

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 11:48 
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Good that Mrs Harman admitted her mistake too. Very rare in politics.


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 11:50 
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DavPaz wrote:
As someone who has never put a penny in a fruit machine and only ever gambles a few quid on the National, I would fully support the banning of Fruit Machines.

I believe I shared my mate's tale earlier in this thread. I saw him flush his university career down the toilet over the course of six months of fruit machine addiction. He was massively overdrawn on his bank account to the tune of over £2000, multiple maxed out credit cards, hardship loans from the university and every penny of his student loans gone. And no income. If he'd had access to other sources of money, he would have maxed them out to. He was ruined.

In the end he had to just jack it all in and go home. One morning, he woke up on a friend's sofa, rang his Dad to come and get him and just left everything that he had behind. It took him years to recover from it. He's doing ok now, but he was lucky he had an escape route and a loving family to take him back.

Moving fruit machines to casinos is no brainer.


I'd get rid of scratchcards too.

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 11:53 
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devilman wrote:
I'd get rid of scratchcards too.


Yep. Too easy.


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 12:20 
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Its little wonder the bookies are not happy with any change to the maximum £100 stake

The FOBT takings look to be almost all from these stakes vs the £2 a spin games


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 12:24 
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Yes, I'd get rid of scratchcards as well - any form of gambling where the outcome is instantly known is the most dangerous. So, scratchcards and fruit machines are worse than, say, the National Lottery, where the gambler has to wait hours or more commonly days for the outcome.

At least with even scratchcards, though, and as awful they are and their payout% nothing short of scandalous, it's not the same bunch of people with "insider knowledge" winning pretty much everything, all the time, and everyone else losing heavily, and with vanishingly small chances of any success, far less than any advertised payout would suggest.

I guess back in the days of maximum £2.40 cash jackpots (as late as the early 1990s) and 20p a go, it could reasonably be argued these were amusement machines and accordingly, you couldn't be too surprised they were bent, much like a crane grab machine at the fair, or whatnot (I don't subscribe to this even at all btw, but you could see why someone in government could think that). But now, with even "pub fruities" costing £1 per spin and £100 repeating cash jackpots, no-one could seriously describe them as amusement machines and therefore somehow not gambling. You can rip through a couple of hundred quid in a single hour with no problem, especially if it's been "done"... even Hearthly has come on here before now to quote some machine or other that took nearly £100 straight, without even offering a SINGLE win of even one pound, and no doubt with 80% payout advertised on it or whatever. The fact that these exist, in places where kids and young adults go (i.e. pubs), is a bloody travesty, just as man-trap FOBTs in every seedy bookie on every High Street is a travesty. We don't sell smack and cocaine on every street corner even though we'd generate shitloads of tax revenue, no doubt. Labour, honestly. Is there nothing they did not mess up, the naive, useless idiots?

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 12:27 
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I don't have such a big problem with the national lottery and scratch cards as part of the money raised goes to good causes. Gambling machines are just there to line the pockets of the owners.


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 12:35 
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But you would have a big problem with scratchcards in every newsagent, garage and supermarket if you were a compulsive gambler (possibly made so by another "gateway" means, such as fruit machines), regardless of whom the money goes to. Some of these cards are £10 each, offering £4 million jackpots! Ridiculous!

These things are little more than a taxation on the poor IMO, in many cases. How many scratchcards mean some kid somewhere doesn't get a good meal in his belly or clothes on her back? Fuck off the lot of them.

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 12:46 
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Kern wrote:
Good that Mrs Harman admitted her mistake too. Very rare in politics.


Must be another one of those mea culpas ;)

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 12:51 
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Cavey wrote:
Kern wrote:
Good that Mrs Harman admitted her mistake too. Very rare in politics.


Must be another one of those mea culpas ;)


Tom Watson said it on R4, too.

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 14:39 
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I think all fruit machines should be reverted to doable £70 machines (specifically the ones I know the methods for) and sited in my home town on a generous payout percentage of 90%.

Sensible policies for happier times.

Seriously though, I nearly lost my life to fruit machines (as documented here and elsewhere), but I don't have any particular desire to see them banned for adults. Definitely outlawed for children though. Strictly over 18s only. And also you should be able to buy MDMA for personal use and then have a gamble whilst off your tits.


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 14:46 
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There was a horrible man on Radio 2 at lunch time talking about this. I didn’t catch it all as I was far more interested in playing Super Mario Odyssey but he reckoned that no one gambled £100 at a time and the machines weren’t a problem.

Apparently the high street would suffer without the presence of betting shops.


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 14:48 
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>:(

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 14:50 
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TheVision wrote:
Apparently the high street would suffer without the presence of betting shops.

You do have to wonder what would fill the gaps.

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 14:58 
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Grim... wrote:
TheVision wrote:
Apparently the high street would suffer without the presence of betting shops.

You do have to wonder what would fill the gaps.


Beex merchandise outlets.

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 15:00 
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devilman wrote:
Grim... wrote:
TheVision wrote:
Apparently the high street would suffer without the presence of betting shops.

You do have to wonder what would fill the gaps.


Beex merchandise outlets.


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 15:12 
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I know it's a crazy idea, but if row upon row of shop buildings on High Streets across the land have no use anymore because there's the internet and it's not 1986, then instead of endless bookies, pound shops and empty shops, can't we convert these buildings to do what we actually do need, or knock them down to make way for new, relevant developments? There is a housing shortage?

Crazy joined up thinking I know. Go me!

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 15:15 
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I agree with you Cavey. I've said for a long time now that the high street has had it's day.

I used to work for the local council and they were forever coming up with some daft schemes to drive people back into shopping in the High Street but funnily enough, nothing worked.


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 15:18 
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When similar arguments are raised for my home town, the usual reason given for the empty shops is the high rents, so unless your shop is part of a big chain, it's not feasible to be anywhere near the town centre. So, it's lots of betting shops and charity shops here, with a few big names remaining, plus lots of new cafes and coffee shops.

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 15:22 
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How are charity shops and pound shops capable of being profitable with high st rent prices?

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 15:25 
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Cras wrote:
How are charity shops and pound shops capable of being profitable with high st rent prices?


Don't charity shops get big discounts on rent? As for pound shops, they're probably the most popular shops in my home town, so I guess the sheer volume of people eventually covers it.

Hmm, according to this page, charities still pay rent, but have other tax concessions instead.

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 15:40 
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Also, in Mrs Squirt's experience, charity shops pay low wages ( although I don't think your average high street retail is too hot anyway), have low paid staff levels, obviously have low stock costs and often barely scrape a profit anyway.


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 17:31 
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asfish wrote:
Its little wonder the bookies are not happy with any change to the maximum £100 stake

The FOBT takings look to be almost all from these stakes vs the £2 a spin games


Meh, this is probably balls on my part, but looking at that figure, FOBTs made something like £2,300,000,000 profit (yield, not turnover) in one year. Now, if you say that there are roughly 60 million people in the country, that means that for every man, woman and child, FOBTs made a per-capita profit (yield) of £38.33 in one year.

Now, if we assume that these random machines are playing roulette, with a payout of around 97%, this means that in order to generate £38.33 profit, the player would need to shovel through £1277.66 (on average).

So basically, the amount of annual profit from B2 and B3 FOBTs in the UK is akin to every man, woman and child pumping nearly £1300 a year (over £100 every month) into the bloody things...? I've probably made some daft mistake or other here (I know UK population is a bit higher than 60m etc., not sure whether non-roulette FOBT games also have 97% payout or less etc.), but you get my drift. It's a shitload of money. 8)

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 17:34 
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Cavey wrote:
I know it's a crazy idea, but if row upon row of shop buildings on High Streets across the land have no use anymore because there's the internet and it's not 1986, then instead of endless bookies, pound shops and empty shops, can't we convert these buildings to do what we actually do need, or knock them down to make way for new, relevant developments? There is a housing shortage?

Crazy joined up thinking I know. Go me!

This sounds worryingly like socialism. What with this and your calls for heavy-handed regulation in the gambling industry you're starting to sound like a swivel-eyed lefty.

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 17:36 
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:DD

Oh NO........

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 17:39 
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To be fair though mate, I know I'm a rabid TORY TWATTO around these parts :D but IRL there are plenty who think my eyes are dangerously prone to to wandering off in quasi-independent arcs. :p Seriously!
I guess it's normal (and good) for your typical person's politics to be a smorgasbord of left, right and middle; mine errs to the centre and right, but there certainly are still fairly left wing bits as well, and I'm a lifelong CND supporter. :D

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2017 17:59 
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:kiss:

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Wed Nov 01, 2017 10:43 
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Cavey wrote:
You can literally bet £700 *per spin* via your phone, tablet or PC, anywhere there's 3G reception or internet.


Holy shit, that's crazy. You could literally lose a years wages in two minutes.


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Wed Nov 01, 2017 10:46 
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Squirt wrote:
Cavey wrote:
You can literally bet £700 *per spin* via your phone, tablet or PC, anywhere there's 3G reception or internet.


Holy shit, that's crazy. You could literally lose a years wages in two minutes.

Or less, if you're Northern!


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Wed Nov 01, 2017 10:48 
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In Walsall, one of the shopping centres that has seen a lot of shops move out temporarily gives its empty units to the art gallery/shop so every unit is nearly always full of wonderful colourful things made by loads of different people.

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Wed Nov 01, 2017 11:29 
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Mr Russell wrote:
In Walsall, one of the shopping centres that has seen a lot of shops move out temporarily gives its empty units to the art gallery/shop so every unit is nearly always full of wonderful colourful things made by loads of different people.


That's great and I commend it to an extent, so much better than whitewashed windows etc. obv.
But FFS, we have a massive housing shortage, can't someone in local government actually join the dots here and incentivise the redevelopment of shops as social housing, by removing all the ridiculous Change of Use planning restrictions which massively prevent this from happening? They could easily state they (the Planners) would only consider such a relaxation where 25-50% of a given development was given over to social housing, still giving the private sector sufficient incentive to develop, but achieving a socially useful result.

Still, fat chance eh. Ever had any dealings with Planners, or indeed councils in general? It's taken 8 years and counting (with no end in sight) to get a pathway re-routed around here, those guys won't be hurried beyond a blinkered, glacial pace for anyone or anything. The very thought of them actually thinking outside of any box whatsoever, is laughable.

Murals it is then.

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Wed Nov 01, 2017 12:10 
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Mr Russell wrote:
In Walsall, one of the shopping centres that has seen a lot of shops move out temporarily gives its empty units to the art gallery/shop so every unit is nearly always full of wonderful colourful things made by loads of different people.


Funny story... They do that in Dudley too and one day there was a painting of the iconic picture of the cover art from Doom. It wasn't very good and I took a picture of it to show my dad as he likes to paint. We both agreed that the perspective was all wrong and it was very flat. Nice effort, but not very good at all.

Fast forward a few years later and there I am meeting up with the old bass player from my band. I haven't seen him for around 10 years and what do you know, his wife painted it and it's now hanging up in his studio... Along with other, not very good pictures. She's done a Storm trooper pointing out the canvas but he only has 3 fingers.


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Wed Nov 01, 2017 12:11 
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Art in interesting spaces is always good.

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Wed Nov 01, 2017 12:41 
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TheVision wrote:
Mr Russell wrote:
In Walsall, one of the shopping centres that has seen a lot of shops move out temporarily gives its empty units to the art gallery/shop so every unit is nearly always full of wonderful colourful things made by loads of different people.


Funny story... They do that in Dudley too and one day there was a painting of the iconic picture of the cover art from Doom. It wasn't very good and I took a picture of it to show my dad as he likes to paint. We both agreed that the perspective was all wrong and it was very flat. Nice effort, but not very good at all.

Fast forward a few years later and there I am meeting up with the old bass player from my band. I haven't seen him for around 10 years and what do you know, his wife painted it and it's now hanging up in his studio... Along with other, not very good pictures. She's done a Storm trooper pointing out the canvas but he only has 3 fingers.


pics plz. Also, does she do requests? I'd like Rick Dangerous stabbing Zool in the face using a shard from a shattered Cool Spot.


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Wed Nov 01, 2017 15:00 
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Findus Fop wrote:
pics plz. Also, does she do requests? I'd like Rick Dangerous stabbing Zool in the face using a shard from a shattered Cool Spot.


I'm sure she would but I can't guarantee it'd be any good.

Also, I can't find the picture. I have it somewhere so as soon as I find it, I'll post it.


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Wed Nov 01, 2017 15:39 
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TheVision wrote:
Findus Fop wrote:
pics plz. Also, does she do requests? I'd like Rick Dangerous stabbing Zool in the face using a shard from a shattered Cool Spot.


I'm sure she would but I can't guarantee it'd be any good.

Also, I can't find the picture. I have it somewhere so as soon as I find it, I'll post it.


Was it LewieP's mum who used to do videogame art? They were genuinely good.


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Wed Nov 01, 2017 16:09 
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Squirt wrote:
Cavey wrote:
You can literally bet £700 *per spin* via your phone, tablet or PC, anywhere there's 3G reception or internet.


Holy shit, that's crazy. You could literally lose a years wages in two minutes.


Needless to say I've never bet £700 per spin or indeed anything close to it, however when I set about beating the 'unbeatable' 1777% bonus at Tropica Casino and needed to wager something like £127,000 over a 72 hour period I had to do a lot of the grinding at £7.50 per spin, the amount your bankroll can fluctuate with those kinds of spins every 2-3 seconds is pretty scary. Swings of hundreds of pounds every few minutes were commonplace.

(For the record I beat the bonus on my second attempt, and walked away with £1050 from a £100 deposit, although my total investment was £200 as it took me two attempts to beat it.)


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Wed Nov 01, 2017 16:32 
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Hearthly wrote:
Squirt wrote:
Cavey wrote:
You can literally bet £700 *per spin* via your phone, tablet or PC, anywhere there's 3G reception or internet.


Holy shit, that's crazy. You could literally lose a years wages in two minutes.


Needless to say I've never bet £700 per spin or indeed anything close to it, however when I set about beating the 'unbeatable' 1777% bonus at Tropica Casino and needed to wager something like £127,000 over a 72 hour period I had to do a lot of the grinding at £7.50 per spin, the amount your bankroll can fluctuate with those kinds of spins every 2-3 seconds is pretty scary. Swings of hundreds of pounds every few minutes were commonplace.

(For the record I beat the bonus on my second attempt, and walked away with £1050 from a £100 deposit, although my total investment was £200 as it took me two attempts to beat it.)


The highest stake I've ever done is about £45 a spin, but that was purely by accident. Nearly all of the online casinos will remember the previous stake settings from last time you played it, but this one slot at this one casino didn't do that, so I ended up rattling through a few spins at £45 a pop before realising that my balance had been fluctuating wildly. Thankfully I noticed it before too long and hadn't lost too much money. Obviously I lost it all in the end anyway though. ;)

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Sat Nov 18, 2017 11:13 
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Did alright last night, £36 in for the £150 on Swing My Axe. (Was called 'Kiss My Axe' on the test machines but people complained it was rude so they changed it for the released machine.)

That makes a reasonable £114 profit in less than 15 minutes, although as my chum notes on the video the last couple of sessions have resulted in modest losses of around £20, but the point is whether or not you're up overall, not every encounter is a guaranteed win.

They hate me so much in that pub they said they didn't have any money in the tills to change the coins for notes. So we went over the road and the barmaid in there was happy to change them into notes for me, and the beer was nicer too.

This is now one of only TWO traditional fruit machines left in Ramsey, all the other machines are random £500ers, and they do some fierce fucking business. They really shouldn't be in pubs at all IMO, but we have different legislation here. The pubs were modestly busy last night and wherever we went, the random £500ers were being played, one pub has four of the fuckers, it's like a little mini casino.

I've heard from someone who used to work for the guy who sites them, that on average each unit pulls in £50K per year profit.

You could make the argument that random machines are 'fairer', but their ability to take money off people massively outstrips traditional fruit machines, and because they're not compensated they don't have to eventually chuck a chunk of money back out to the player.

Also, I can't reliably make money off them and I like free nights out, so there's that.



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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Sat Nov 18, 2017 13:43 
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Hearthly wrote:

You could make the argument that random machines are 'fairer', but their ability to take money off people massively outstrips traditional fruit machines, and because they're not compensated they don't have to eventually chuck a chunk of money back out to the player.


This is something that always messed me up playing the random ones. After years of playing the more traditional slots, where something would eventually have to give, my brain was just stuck thinking 'it's got to do something soon' and I'd end up chasing losses.

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 9:11 
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Here's a shockingly bent one.

I do remember hearing the 'chatter' around this machine online at the time but never had one over here so didn't particularly pursue finding out what the method was.

Turns out it was ridiculously simple. All you need to do is get on the feature, and when you land on a question mark hold down the 'DEAL OR NO DEAL' button and then press COLLECT at the same time, this awards the DOND game when it shouldn't. (And where the question mark would have most likely killed you.)

The significant thing about this is that the machine will always be prepared to offer features on a reasonably regular basis, but in 'normal' play it'd kill you off before offering more than £2-£4 if that's all the value it has in it. (And it certainly wouldn't allow the DOND game in this state.)

The DOND game isn't compensated along with the rest of the machine, and the value it puts in the box is random or semi-random, but this is OK as far as the machine is concerned because it can (and does) 'protect' the DOND game very fiercely and simply make it impossible to achieve if it doesn't want the player to get it.

As such, being able to get a DOND game on every feature completely breaks the machine, add in the fact that pro players could 'read' the mirrored reel and see what their hidden box was, they also knew when to DEAL or NO DEAL to maximise the value from the game. (Or keep NO DEALING to the end if a high enough value was in the box.)

The final kicker is that the wins were accounted for, the machine knew what it'd paid out so would desperately try to claw back money to get to percentage, with features ending up costing £10+ and blocking at £2. (And even then the player who knew the trick could make money off it in that scenario, thanks to being able to take a mostly random DOND game on any feature.)

I played this for a bit last night and got it running at over 200% payout (from a target of 84%), I then switched to 'normal play' as a player who didn't know the trick and was just trying his luck, and the results were as brutal as you'd expect.

What a fucking bent 'industry'.



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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 19:38 
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Hmmm, turns out that if you push it far enough it just starts using the GAME OVER square on the feature to immediately kill you off, removing the opportunity to use the trick on the question mark squares to get the DOND game.

So it's almost like they've built in an escape route for the machine, whereby if it gets walloped hard enough it can prevent getting totally decimated by starting to use the GAME OVER square, which doesn't really need to be there at all since it can always just give GAME OVER from the question mark, or HI/LO CONTINUE to a lose and suchlike.

Apparently the players who got the info on this machine first made thousands and thousands out of them. (£10K-£15K+ has been cited in some cases, which considering this was in the era of £250 hoppers, is entirely believable.)


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Sat Dec 16, 2017 19:52 
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REAL LIFE fruit machine shenanigans.

It was our works Christmas do yesterday, the session ran from noon until midnight. I'm mostly still in one piece.

I have upgraded my infrastructure to include a cameraman, so don't get too over excited at how fucking sexy I am.

Or as I was kindly described.....

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Sun Dec 17, 2017 9:29 
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Shock horror, the paper-based exclusion system used by the bookies has flaws in it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-4237286 ... ops-flawed


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Sun Dec 17, 2017 9:33 
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Yes, the idea that every bookies in the country could remember photos of every self excluded customer is nonsense.
It could be solved very easily by requiring everyone to produce ID and register as a customer to use machines above a certain threshold.
With a central database it's then straightforward to check you as you arrive.


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Sun Dec 17, 2017 9:43 
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I think identity proof at point of entry is an even better way of doing it if that’s feasible as I think putting a threshold on and allowing addicts to place even small bets is probably wrong (which I’m only surmising as I think it’s a problem when a recovering alcoholic has ‘just the one’ drink). It’d also be good if someone eh did want to exclude themselves could sign up centrally to exclude his/her self from all of the bookies in a given area rather than have to go to each one seperately. I know councils do a lot to regulate bookies, so it’s potentially a database they could keep.

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Sun Dec 17, 2017 10:47 
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Mimi wrote:
I think identity proof at point of entry is an even better way of doing it if that’s feasible


The bookies wouldn't want to put off their regulars by asking for ID though, I'd imagine.

The only way that I see this kind of scheme working is if they had the same facial recognition systems that big casinos do and I don't see them spending that kind of money to keep out people that ultimately make them money.

While it's good that the BBC have highlighted the problem with the self-exclusion system, I imagine it will now lead to a few people now putting it to the test, knowing they're not likely to be challenged. I self-excluded myself from my local arcade once. It was never discussed what would happen if I tried to go back in, but psychologically, it was enough for me to know that if I went back in, I'd be in some sort of trouble and a scene would be made in front of everyone. That said, a few years later, I did go back in and mentioned to them that I was previously excluded and could they remove it and they did, so beyond that psychological effect, there probably wasn't much weight behind it all anyway.

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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Sun Dec 17, 2017 10:57 
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Bookies are stupid anyway, you can't even have beers.

Drinking AND gambling at the same time is the way to go for maximum enjoyment.

It's interesting that the bookies haven't proliferated here like they have across (in fact I can think of a couple that have closed down), and those we do have don't much go in for machines anyway, which I entirely put down to the pubs here having random £500ers in them.

I personally find this annoying as I can make money out of traditional fruit machines, but I can understand why Joe Bloggs prefers to have a punt on random games set at decent percentages.

The pub that had that DOND NEXT LEVEL in it in the video above also has two random £500 machines. We were in there for about four hours, no one apart from me played the fruit machine, but the random £500ers were doing good business.

(Then again someone must be playing the fruit machines, and not have any idea what they're doing at that, as it was flying right from the off.)


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 Post subject: Re: The pointless emulation thread - fruit machines
PostPosted: Sun Dec 17, 2017 12:31 
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I was in a local pub last week for lunch with the family

Its an average size place, but had 2 fruit machines, 3 FOBT type terminals offering dozens of £100 JP games on each, a grabber and a retro "MAME" type arcade machine that cost 50p to play PacMan!

It must be getting arcade type customers in there to play the machines and nothing else.


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