FOTB or Bandits?

I think the difference is with pub fruit machines they happen to be there while you're drinking with mates. FOBTs in bookies you must actively seek out and walk in to play them.

Can I ask, are you lonely and waiting for friends to arrive when you play the pub bandits, or do you go to the pub specifically to play the machines?

Big difference.

All those flashing lights in a crowded pub when you feel alone is a massive draw to offset natural social anxiety.

But Cold FOBTs in a bookies you've walked into is a different trip. No one hangs around a bookmakers unless they want to bet.

Is that the difference maybe?

Hi Big Red

Seriously you need to stop.

Right thinking people soon called them bandits because thats exactly what they are. They are flashing away at you because the gaming company and the landlord want a nice little earner. They know people get addicted and they know people are attracted like flies to flypaper.

If I walk into my one pub now I immediately mention to the barstaff that I am not to be seen on them. Ok I get some funny looks (thats their ignorance) but it sets up my barriers where I am officially self excluded from bookies.

Infact Im stopping my very rare visits to that pub because I dont like the atmosphere anyway and the fact they put machines in there. The truth is its a boring pub which feels like a school hall. The truth is that I never should be on my own and the company of friends or a nice lady would give me something far better to be doing...Thats the TRUTH.....I was lonely and lost

Gambling is a mugs game. Its a game for losers and the terminally bored. Its the boredom the money and a twisted sense of seeking a high. Lets face the fact that chatting to an old drunk doesnt seem as attractive as the flashing lights. The real issue is that you are in the wrong place and not living life to the full.

Alchohol is a drug and so is gambling. It numbs/distracts the senses and provides an escape from the sham drudgery of that pub

You will feel much better when you are out of it. You will feel human again.

Please read the forum and start your road to full recovery

I wish you all the very best

BigRed, there is no difference between fruit machine or FOBT addiction. I used to seek out playing of fruit machines in arcades or seek out playing of FOBT's in bookies. Of course if I found one in a pub I'd be all over it, but it wasnt boredom or anything like that - I'd just developed a relationship with playing machines in place of doing something more healthy like non gamblers do. So for me it was a lifestyle change as well as fighting an addiction, you need to work on the lifestyle change alongside fighting the addiction - dont get caught up with why.

I wouldnt worry too much about what attracts you, for me it was a slowly developed habbit that came around from hanging out in arcades as a kid, maybe I liked the childhood feelings coming back, maybe I liked flashing lights, maybe Im just bored - who knows.. Playing the fruit machines with pocket money developed into playing fruit machines as an adult with wages, which in turn drew me into the bookies when the FOBT's were released. In the short term you need to avoid places where they are (pubs and arcades) whilst you come to terms with breaking the association or the draw, you can fight the addiction a bit with self exclusion, avoidance, no access to money and so on, thats hard but it can be done. The real difficulty is lifestyle change/change of personality and thats the bit to take seriously longer term

The draw for me is they were almost like a hobby, I'd played them since childhood so playing one through until I won the Jackpot was like completing a puzzle - difficult to walk away from not finished. I could block myself from access to gambling but I needed to address the personality side of me that felt the need to 'complete the task', that doesnt go away unless you seek help. Call Gamcare and ask then to refer you to their local partner for 1 to 1 support, they can help you - take it from me as someone with a serious 25 year fruit machine addiction. You will always stumble across a machine, pub, airport, platform at a train station coffee shop, arcade - wherever. Self exclusion/avoidance wont help you with that, seek the help buddy,

Wonder if an alcoholic says which affects them more. Scotch or Vodka?

You hear people say, that FOBTs are a whole new ball game, when it comes to gambling.

On the surface that is true, you can lose far more quickly in a FOBT, than a fruit machine, because of the stakes and the way FOBTs are random (I hear some say no they're not). While your standard fruit machines, needs to keep to a minimum percentage, so there is a good chance you won't lose as much.

But ultimtely most will still lose.

Convenience and opportunity definitely plays a part. Years ago, I even go out of my way to visit an arcade to gamble, but then online gambling became readily available and I turned away from the arcades and to online gambling.

As for FOBT, I never got into them, one, because again online was still more convenient and two, I've never gambled in a bookies before and only visited with mates, as I had no interest in anything but slots.

I think all types of gambling machines are extremely dangerous. Im not sure I like any differentiation that "fruit" machines are a softer option. Some people have a tendency to infer that they are only fruit machines when compared to fobts (as if in some way fobts are for the casino game big boys and fruit machines are for kids and dabblers)

They are not in that they still create heavy addicts and ruin people. 20p to £2 every couple of seconds reduces money fast enough.

The very word" fruit" needs to be changed. They are now seriously programmed bandits with note slots..........the CC of gambling

The payout figures are over the life of the machine and are being misinterpreted by gamblers who ignore the odds. To write 92% on a machine in no way reflects what is happening while you are playing. Infact it's being used to twist a false sense of security. Together with a program of false wins, tempter amounts and near misses they are designed very deviously to hook people fast into the one more go, trance mentality. The whole bonus bar psychology is a new level of chasing just to get the feature which might not even pay anything. Its chemically driven behaviour and can only be described as a form of madness or mind control in compulsive gamblers

If people knew the real chance of spinning the maximum win, would they play? People need to read how a number generator is calculated over different reel positions. The sights Ive seen of people losing everything, I never want to see again.

For compulsive gamblers they are lethal. The older machines werent random and the new machines have a number generator stacked well against you in what combinations it can bring up. Again gamblers ignore the odds for sensations, dopamine or desperation to win money. Call it what you like. It ruins people and I know its a mugs game

Thinking about it, I was getting bored with old machines and then a new breed came in which hooked me again.

I hate them! Im now well clear and think Ive finally sorted it this time with exclusions. I will never be complacent but have breezed two months with no temptations. Im just reflecting on all the things I could have already had from my buying list