£2 limit on FOBT

This depends how much of a chaser the person is? ВЈ2 or £100 if the person is chasing a total sum they will bet what they want. It is a good start to cracking down on the problem of gambling however it seems like it has come too late.

When i used to play i used to get to a point of chasing my losses, coming up 9 months without playing and i ask why all of a sudden do they do this? It should never have gotten to a point where people can bet so much. The question is how do they tackle the online casinos because they r the killer where people can not see the money they are betting. Thankfully i never explored this route but i know some who have and they have lost hundreds even over 1000 in one session.

I do agree that the lower limit only means that it will just take the person longer to lose their money but the fact that they can now only win smaller amounts on certain games could help turn them off. I can't answer for all people but I for one am pleased that the government r finally stepping in, some people have berated me for saying it, i simply told them to get help.

Simple thing to do for those who love high stakes and don't think they have a problem, even with this intervention is DON'T PLAY IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE STAKES SAVE YOUR MONEY AND TREAT YOUR FAMILY, I wish now I had the strength I do no now this time last year. All of us on here have been deeply hurt by the gambling epidemic or we wouldn't be here talking about this. Keep fighting the good fight guys we will all beat addiction to this evil industry.

I haven't gambled too much since the end of 2017 luckily, but it is certainly a step in the right direction for us 'chasers' - when I was losing heavily in the arcade on £2 spins I would end up going to the bookies next door and straight away load up fortune spins or roulette (I was never a huge roulette person, but usually when I did play it I was in loss chasing mode so big bets pretty much every session of that).

However I did read the restrictions won't be enforced until the end of 2019, so basically January 2020 so the bookies have plenty of time to come up with schemes and loopholes to get around the limit in some way (I am not sure if there is a set limit on how fast roulette / slot reels can actually spin, I know some FOBTs used to have a turbo roulette which basically bypassed the entire roulette ball animation but it was quickly pulled!)

I look back at my gambling story as it were and I remember I was getting sucked in to arcades but the bookies I just thought the machines you could play blackjack / roulette and bet on the horses with, if only I hadn't found out they offered lots of my 'favourite' slot games eh...suppose I would have realized at some point either way though!

When are the ВЈ2 stakes coming into force? I gambled on Saturday , roulette my demon , and the 4 FOBT machines were very much in use. Stakes still at ВЈ100 every 20 seconds. The cashier even asked me if I wanted to increase my stake from.ВЈ50 to ВЈ100 when I went to load up yet another ВЈ100 to add to the ВЈ600 that I had blown on my debit card. Some of the above comments really resonate to me. I've £7 left for food until payday. Disgraceful.reallly but I've got a major addiction which I'm.finding hard to beat

Morning Steph. I am saddened to read of the pain and misery you have experienced through gambling. I sincerely hope you can overcome your urges to gamble and start to live again.

I was told by a manager from the bookies that the £2 limit would not come into effect until the end of 2019.

That's terrible. Another year. Yes sadly I'm trying my best to overcome my addiction but finding it very hard to beat. I find it's onkybwhen I have no funds whatsoever is when I stop. But it's only short-lived as the urge always has a grip on me when I have access to funds

Hi Steph

I have just spent the last 30 mins trying to discover when the £2 restriction will come into force with no answer. All I found was a lot of bleating from the bookies about how much damage it will do to their immoral activities. I am hugely saddened to hear of the cashier actively encouraging you to increase your stake. How do these peolpe sleep at night? Unless someone turns up outside the bookies in their chauffer driven range rover, who exactly can afford to play £100 spins of a game?

In reality, once the bookies have drawn this out as long as possible I doubt it will happen until 2019 at the very earliest.

This is too late to be any help to you and my advice, for what it is worth, is get some other blocks in place and work out why you are gambling and resolve that. The blocks are only a temporary barrier to hopefully give yourself time to reconsider before you place a bet - you need to get to a place where you don't want/nned to gamble.

Good luck.

Thanks for the advice Muststop. Your advice is greatly appreciated. The money I've lost over the years just on FOBTS is extortionate. When I lose now which seeems to be the case all the time I don't feel.anything now just numbness. It's like I feel.i deserve to lose. One cashier in a north London bookmakers close to where I live, gladly took 3.5k from me around 5 weeks ago. Money I was supposed to have used to pay rent arrears, without even asking if I had a problem.I thought after that wouldn't gamble again but found myself back a week later with a payday loan trying to chase my losses. I have self excluded but a lot in my area don't question when I go back in. They just turn a blind eye. I excluded from 10 and was only questioned by one shop despite giving my picture and details to all. Someone on the forum quite rightly said it the tables were turned and the stakes had been increased from.ВЈ100 to £200 then you bet that this would have been implemented by all bookies with immediate effect.

That is disgraceful behaviour from the bookies but unfortunately I think relying on the gambling industry to help protect us is dangerous despite all their policies and "responsible gambling" slogans. They might pretend to want to help protect people with gambling problems but let's face it we are a marvellous source of income for them. They don't want the ordinary punter spending £20 a week on the odd football bet when they can have people like us giving them £1000s a week.

Agree about speed of implementation, we would see £200 options today if that have been the decision. Similar thing with the introduction of Gamstop - it took four years for the working group set up to implement it (formed from representatives of the gambling industry) to launch what is basically a database of names and addresses and they still do not have all online operators signed up. This is from companies running some of the most sophisticated websites and marketing campaigns on the web using mailing lists (a database of names and addresses!!) to continually target customers.

Allowing the gambling industry to self regulate themselves in any way and be responsible really is leaving the foxes to guard the chickens. No offense to foxes meant.

Any delays in implementing it are a disgrace....they really dont care and thats my overwhelming feeling. Ok its not a step in the wrong direction but I just feel its going to make no difference to most gamblers.

Personally I want an all out ban because I realise the sheer power these machines have over people. They prove that its easy to get people standing there pushing buttons and it is one of the saddest sights when you think about it. Im clear that they shouldnt be allowed to produce them

I feel so saddened what have done that to people. Any psychologist will tell you its fairly easy to twist the human brain and turn us into our own worst enemies.

The government make hundreds of millions in gambling taxes.. I could say no more

The fruit machines should have the odds printed in large letters where they can be seen. The B2 and B3 categories need classifying further. If its a million to one it should be stated in any advertising and stated clearly on the machine. Never mind the pictures of flying carpets...there should be some reality on there.

The random aspect needs clarifying further because they are only random related to the positions of symbol on the reels. The positions of those symbols mean that you could spin the thing countless times and get nowhere near the higher prize advertised. Random doesnt play in my favour on those odds because as addicts random means good chances...oh its random so it could be me...really? The lottery is random and families could play over generations and never win a d**n thing that makes a difference. We know the lottery is random but does that make it any easier to win...thats why they dont offer much for three balls as the odds are highly calculated on the take vs outcome

They really are boxes of delusion and I cant stress that enough. the odds of winning a small prize are 1.10 so thats a 9 in 10 losing chance. I get angry with myself because I wouldnt bet on balls under cups on those odds. I wouldnt bet on a spin of a coin but I would stand at those machines for some weird feeling. I was just deluded and ill with it.

Far too much emphasis is placed on the RTP which is in effect meaningless per session and meaningless over many sessions. That number would only mean something if you had the machine for its RTP lifetime whatever that is

That needs clarifying further because no addict gives a d**n about getting 20p, £2.40 or £7.20 for example. Those amounts will form part of the RTP but hardly anyone is playing for those amounts. Its just an illusion that the machine is active for you because people are chasing the bonus symbols and big win that they deserve in their addicted minds

Next point is chasing bonus symbols which can in many instances give a prize of say 40p at the end of it. It promotes feelings of being cheated and the red mist of further chasing. Its designed to do that...who in life offers a bonus thats d**n all...if it happened at work you would feel totally done over because YOU ARE BEING FOOLED.

Next point is that amounts lower than the stake are still registered with pleasant sounds as if they are a win.. That should be outlawed and fast because all this gives the illusion of happy times when you are in fact just wasting money.They are designed to take your money on a curve but I state that addicts are long past any feelings of true entertainment.

I havent even started on roulette and blackjack...perhaps the people punching the screens gives you an idea of what a reliable income scheme they are

So there is all sorts of highly devious stuff that just shouldnt be allowed. The £2 limit is just paying lip service to a deep and devasting problem

Fobting us and robbing us is all they ever do

Mesmerising, hypnotising, lights flashing as we do our cash in

Lured by greed and wheels that spin the punters sob while the tyrants grin

£2 spins might help some but the crafty bookies sure ain't dumb

Deregulation of gambling laws has gone a long way to making more people with gambling problems in this country. In the Uk and Australia there are more problem gamblers because the laws are the most lax. This is a fact and the sources of this are freely available all over the internet.

This change in the law is not going to save the already problem gambler but it will go a long way to reducing the amount of future problem gamblers. It won't save me as I can gamble huge on many other things but I am glad it will help reduce the frustration of many sick acting people that anyone who frequents the bookmakers cannot help but see.

It is a step in the right direction.

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 can say for certain that I will never play FOBT when the maximum bet is two pounds. Just like when Heroin was just under Gambling as my choice addiction, If I or the others around me had the hit severely reduced it would not be heroin that we chased anymore. To be as close to death without dying is often where we wanted to be. With a weakened substance everyone would either seek out something else to numb ones brain and a few I guess would find this a reason to actually stop and take stock of their lives.

I'm sure the decrease in stake will have the most effect for future gamblers. Next to them being banned from the high street, this is very good news.

“Never” is an overused word for an addict...I don’t know how many times I said it with meaning & failed to follow through! How many threads on here state that people are NEVER going to gamble again are followed by relapses & repeat!?

Most heroin addicts I know don’t give a 2nd thought to the quality of the hit (& I’m not just talking about when they are clucking or how you would know how good it is until you take it & then, would you really leave a batch because it didn't get you high enough?!?), just like most problem gamblers have no interest in the odds but as you say, people are likely to seek out ‘something else’. In this situation, that something else is conveniently already provided by the very people being forced into the stake reduction.

Rest assured there are many of us here who started out on much lower stakes than this & sadly, can’t see why this as it stands would have any positive impact on the future generations!

Never is only said because the rush will always be gained from other forms of gambling.
Reducing the stake does not really help me personally and the ideal situation is for them to be banned completely but I firmly believe that this will help with future problem gambling.
The more outlets to gamble in a country means more problem gamblers. Deny this if you choose but the stats from the liberalised countries betray that denial.
I'm not sure what sort of heroine addicts you have known but if the gear was constantly bad they would move on to something else after a short time of taking anything that does not take them.to where they want to be. I watched many die chasing the ultimate hits.
Anyway must go.

For me the £2 stake will be a god send. I have lost thousands going a £100 a spin. Never touched the slots on fobt. With it being only £2 it won’t give me the same buzz. I actual agree with what problemgambler said.