Can this be true?
doesnt even matter if it is...it just means it will take you longer to lose all your money!
valdab wrote:
doesnt even matter if it is...it just means it will take you longer to lose all your money!
Not at all. Its like taking any drug. Small hit does not have the same effect. Trying to win with such little money will not have the same exciting danger and euphoria, hence you will not want to play it anymore.
ProblemGambler wrote:
Can this be true?
thats a very good point...but also like a drug, you usually do not start out on high doses, but you can get addicted to small doses and then need more. So eventually you will go elsewhere for your fix. It doesnt solve any problem...it will just drive it elsewhere
ProblemGambler wrote:
[quote=valdab]
doesnt even matter if it is...it just means it will take you longer to lose all your money!
Not at all. Its like taking any drug. Small hit does not have the same effect. Trying to win with such little money will not have the same exciting danger and euphoria, hence you will not want to play it anymore.
That is probably one of the most naive things I have ever heard on this forum PG & rest assured, I’ve read a LOT! Junkies don’t stop trying for a fix just because they’ll only get a small hit! Surely “winning” the same amount of money with a smaller wager will produce a more euphoric feeling?!?
I did most of my damage on low stakes & for me, the beauty of the increased stake FOBT was that it bought me crashing to my knees! As Valdab points out, I just kept @ it until I had nothing more to lose...Hours & hours @ the start of my gambling career reduced to minutes & seconds by the end & the kick up the rear end I needed to accept a) I had a gambling problem & b) I needed help to control it.
Blocks/reduced stakes/banning machines can’t fix us, we’re addicts & the only way to get our addictions under control is to rewire our brains so that we don’t need our poison anymore.
ODAAT wrote:
[quote=ProblemGambler]
[quote=valdab]
doesnt even matter if it is...it just means it will take you longer to lose all your money!
Not at all. Its like taking any drug. Small hit does not have the same effect. Trying to win with such little money will not have the same exciting danger and euphoria, hence you will not want to play it anymore.
That is probably one of the most naive things I have ever heard on this forum PG & rest assured, I’ve read a LOT! Junkies don’t stop trying for a fix just because they’ll only get a small hit! Surely “winning” the same amount of money with a smaller wager will produce a more euphoric feeling?!?
I did most of my damage on low stakes & for me, the beauty of the increased stake FOBT was that it bought me crashing to my knees! As Valdab points out, I just kept @ it until I had nothing more to lose...Hours & hours @ the start of my gambling career reduced to minutes & seconds by the end & the kick up the rear end I needed to accept a) I had a gambling problem & b) I needed help to control it.
Blocks/reduced stakes/banning machines can’t fix us, we’re addicts & the only way to get our addictions under control is to rewire our brains so that we don’t need our poison anymore.
I guess we will have to agree to disagree. My point being is that gambling addiction gets progressively worse and just like any drug it takes a stronger dosage to get the same effect. Same applies to fixed odds betting, you start small and you often get progessively worse. £2 bets are not going to have the same emotional and financial impact as £100 bets. Either way its a positive step if it does get implemented, as its very hard to cover 37 numbers with just £2 and makes the game less viable. The gambling industry know this hence the big fuss from them.
Ah, but roulette is just one of the many games on these terminals, PG. Slot games will still take your £2 in a two-second spin, and so it's still possibly to, notionally at least, lose £30 a minute.
The problem with being a compulsive gambler, as we are, is that we always start small and end up spending big. That's the way it is, and that's why we can't start up again.
In any case, the terminals will just be played for longer, until all the money's gambled away; that's the bitter truth.
There's no way around it. We have to stop. 1p is 1p too much.
"Them's the facts" 🙁 and we have to agree to disagree on this one PG!
As a seasoned £2 stake slots gambler, this news was met with much indifference from me when announced.
Never been into roulette, real or machine but I can see why that would perhaps some effect there. The trouble is with slots, most have options for ‘turbo modes’ and speeding up whilst the reels are spinning. I’ve lost thousands in single sessions on £2 stakes alone.
But if it helps just some money not get into the hands of the sleaze ball casinos and remain in the pockets of us vulnerable GAs then that’s got to be a good start at least. How they have got the nerve to even think about contesting this is beyond belief.
It makes no real difference. I could get through £2 a minute on 20p stakes and thats being conservative with the estimate. It was probably nearer £3 especially when the trance set in.
You see I was a "clever" gambler on the lower stakes.Thats how I was going to beat them because of course the machine prize was getting nearer the longer I played...... NOT! All those extra plays and it was bound to come up. No I was a sensible gambler and I was having fun.....real grimacing, cold sweat, numb fun!..not like the £2 guys who were just wasting money.....no I was not like them with loads more chances to win. I will win smaller but more often. I was 10 times cleverer then them on 20p...NOT!
Then when I was getting through £100 in well less than an hour ( I didnt keep tack of time and it felt more like half an hour to be honest) I would draw another bundle of paper out along with the cash advance fees it cost me.
Then the miser kicked in...£3 to draw £100 from a credit card what a disgrace... Im not having that...I had better be extra clever because that machine owes me now. I will show them because it will all come out again plus £3 as the cherry on top.The discomfort and fear had started. The chemicals were rushing as the compulsive gambling reached full flow. Difficult to describe but its the confusion of madness
Then the cold sweat and several more trips to the servicetill. This cant be right. I won £70 in that last batch of spins...wheres that gone....Oh Im £500 down.. Trying to deal with the fear in a delusional way for a while..Oh its only 500..Ive been bailed before by my loving family. Im getting some rent money paid in tomorrow and I might have another go (already £350 behind in the rent and gambling rent money)
Then the extinction. A wallet full of service till withdrawal slips. Any cash inbetween them....no...I will check again... no...then the reality reallystarted dawning. A few hours ago I thought I would win the cost of a mobile phone top up and now Im in deep trouble as I face the walk home with dark and even suicidal thoughts
Thats on 20p a time! Heaven knows how fast the £2 lot were getting through it They would come up with a sneer and say you should be on the higher stakes mate as if it was a big boys club.
Ok the lower stake will last longer in any snapshot of time but I simply stayed long enough to waste all my money.
Even on a reduction in spins per minute, I think I would have been there all day. I have been in an arcade for 10 hours straight in my dark days.
Far more is needed to regulate them. If its not a full ban I dont know what the answer is. I dont trust gambling dens to set any protective measures. I know that compulsive gamblers cant go anywhere near the gambling dens or online
Best wishes to everyone on the forum
You've described it to a tee, Joydivider. Reading your post is like reading a "Dear Diary" entry for me; loads of bits of paper in my wallet but not one banknote. In fact, things were so bad for me that I normally had a long walk home that took me at least an hour. Pay a tenner for a cab? A TENNER? No way ....
And, as you say, the misery would really kick in. And then, the following morning when the reality would kick in all over again and I'd have a long, yawning, deadly dull drawn out month with zero money to think about it.
Trips to the supermarket with a £3 budget to see me through the last few days before payday; always the same cheap, drab choice: beans, bread, milk, 15p packs of biscuits ... and this was at a time I was chasing £6 jackpots, and still spending hundreds of pounds I couldn't afford...total madness!
Fast forward to where I am today, and, somehow, Im solvent and relatively secure. But ... I could have been comfortably retired by now, even at the age of 49 (I had a successful business that, due to the nature of it, has now come to a natural close).
Your story brought it all back to me, Joydivider, and I know if I start again I'll go from relatively comfortable back to debt, misery,and more. I'm one bet away, one small bet away, from the disaster that could easily unfold in the space of a few hours. The last time I gambled was a £700 loss eight months ago.
1p is 1p too much. The FOBTs could be capped at 20p a spin, as you've said JD, and we're still doomed.
The bookies will still be quids in and they secretly know it. The only difference is it will take them slightly longer to get their easy profits. They're only going all-out with the lobbying to prevent further sanctions in future.
Great post, JD.
Yes Thanks Mixer. You know what its all about.
I wouldnt dream of regularly paying a tenner for a cab or even adding the cost of gravy to my chips 🙂 I would then stand like a zombie pushing those buttons because they were drawing me in for more of a crack C*****e fix than a monetary issue. £700 into a fruit machine when I had been putting off buying a new shaver foil for say £15...It makes no sense other than a drug fix because there is no way I could ever have considered it an an income scheme when needed.
Ive eaten some nice food in my time but far too often I been in supermarkets with something like £1.62 to spend trying to get the value brand of custard creams, beans and some milk.
If anybody wants me to sum up a gambling addiction its spooning cheap disgusting mayonaise into my mouth hoping it will sustain me till the morning. I will remember that desperate chemical taste all my life as I dont think the stuff had been anywhere near an egg. All while looking round for anything left that can be pawned knowing it will get damaged in the process.
I watch a lot of you tube videos and read a lot about gambling addiction
The limit will almost certainly not be £2 and will be higher at say £30. However I feel its a red herring and it does not address the real issues or protect people.
We talk about problem gamblers but I have seen people piling money into them and I wonder about the true scale of the problem.
I get through because Im learning what is important in life and I do have a good family
Best wishes to everyone on the forum
The 20p spins seem so safe to play till you're £20, then £50, £100+ in the hole. Been there too many times especially with the change or a very low debit card payment at a supermarket self service buying the cheap food. Tortilla chips, cheap jaffa cakes, 50p bread and 2 litre cheap soft drink etc. Annoying thing is when the gambler has just a few pound left the mind works normally again.
Brilliant post joy divider, how very true your words ring. I always thought I was a pretty smart gambler I like you spent from opening time 9.00 am till 10..pm loads of times, but I was a watcher I'd keep my eyes peeled on who was playing what and how much they was spending, I got that good at I could watch 2 or 3 peoples machines at the same time as playing my own, then as soon as they ran outta money bang!!! I'd be the quickest out the arcade to jump on there machines.
As a regular I could hold machines open and flit from one end of the arcade to the other making a win loosing, holding the loosing machine, to try and win on anouther machine. Utter madness, I never starved in there was fed and watered all day so having Jack s**t left at the end didn't matter I always got fed!!
I look back at my years spent either online, in a arcade, or the odd scratch card and think.. What a complete dum a*s I was, I could never play small amounts I always played the highest stake., auto play and watch several machines next to each other with anticipation, the sad thing looking back,. Jackpots meant b****r all, that's the truth.
No matter what a cap is on a machine your 1st spin is a loss. As a gambler your last spin is desperation
Xredx
You will also notice on various FOBT 20p/25p games that the £500 jackpot is slashed to a £125 jackpot on that stake! (Which is still as impossible to obtain!)
Also in some arcades, they've set the minimum stake of play to £1! I thought it was all about entertainment rather than addiction operators...
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