Good stuff slippyblue. It must have been some night.

Actually I was on the Cheap side so was Probably bang opposite him

That was the Man Slippy and The Beard Without (Richard) last Seen Launching the satchel 50 foot in to the air and walking off in the Distance ,was a Lovely bloke one too many bad nights .

Great link Slippy Blue. Thanks

Is the question how mch we have gambled or how much we have lost? I be up and down, never really lost massive amounts never really won massive amounts, but i no i be laying big odds or backing short favs

Study, I'm shocked that someone as astute as yourself played FOBTs. Or are you referring to machines you had in your shop?

I don't get why people play them. Is it the idea that you might just get lucky and have a big win?

Someone called in to LBC and claimed that he used to make thousands every week on the FOBTs because he was aware of when they were due to pay out. He said that he stopped a few years back because the firms had got wise to the loophole and closed it.

It's a load of old carp, as Studyform says. I'm an off-course bookmaker and it's a random number sent down the internet to the machines in the shops and overrides with a random number generated by the computer in the Fobt if there is ever any connection issues. They have never been anything else and you could hardly call them 'Fixed Odds Betting Terminals' if they weren't!

If you include any bookmaker betting turnover my £40m figure could probably be doubled.

It sure is and i cant watch sport now for the love of it, even today watching the final wanted croatia to win but cudnt just heer them on so had to have a we lay of france and even before that the tennis on had a we punt on anderson winning a set

it's a random number sent down the internet to the machines in the shops and overrides with a random number generated by the computer in the Fobt if there is ever any connection issues. They have never been anything else and you could hardly call them 'Fixed Odds Betting Terminals' if they weren't!

Disclaimer, I have no proof of this apart from my own experience.

Guessing about 6 years ago, one of the high street chains had machines, where if the start button was pressed on 2 machines at the same time,
then both machines would return the same number.

I observed this a few times, and then confirmed it by operating 2 machines myself.

I deduced after a bit of experimentation that the number changed every second and I tried to explore the possibility of it being
totally time derived but soon realised that if I couldn't get a machine to reverse engineer the code, I wasn't going nowhere.

The machines changed ( to a non time based number ) a few months later anyway.

On the same lines, in the early days of Full Tilt poker, some clever guy managed to work out that their 'random' number generator was
merely the clock down to millisecond.

That is a very interesting post. I don`t bet machines myself but I am going to try that tomorrow and shall report back with outcome.

Reverse engineering WOW! Can you not just buy a machine? You didn`t work in Area 51 by any chance?

Escapee.
The FOBTs did have about one or maybe 2 numbers generated  a second and on all games any press at the same time generated the same result.
The result though is always generated instantly, what you see is a sort of cartoon image of it which takes about 10 seconds.
A bit later, maybe 8 or 9 years ago the random numbers were generated much more quickly, in the billions per second, making the simultaneous press impossible. This was around the same time that all the slot games were developed.
Not that it mattered because even if several machines at once came up with the same result, it didn't help to pick any winners as all bets are on before the button is pressed anyway. Which if you think about it, should be all the reason we need to never touch them.

When these machines were first invented, I was chatting to one of the software developers and he explained how the ones he was selling into Badblokes were indeed run by random number generator, but despite the numbers potentially generated being 1-37 (37 being zero) they could add a few more, so maybe 1-41 or 1-42 and all the numbers above 37 were completely for the house, and if say 40 was generated, the cartoon would just  show a number on which there were no chips.

As for Poker, I know Ultimate bet were done for this, it used to be available to watch on YouTube, but all the poker providers need to have is a single person on a given table, or in a given competition, able to see ALL the cards. Not hard to program.

It's purely an addiction, themightymac.
The machines get into people's brains. Any semblance of reason and intelligence is lost.

The thing the biggest bookies don't get - because they're run by ex-students and accountants and not anyone who understands gambling - is that if the machines weren't there, the money would come back over the counter. And, the expense (rent/tax) of the machines would be negated.

It`s always been like that with the fruit machines in the Clubs, they are programmed to beat you.

I don`t know if the FOBTs are similar as I have no knowledge of them. Perhaps study or casemoney who worked in bookies can advise or perhaps they left before the arrival of FOBTS?

The fruit machines in the bookies have quite a high payout although this can be altered.
Different in the service areas on the motorways where its in the 60s.

Oh I meant to say, there is no percentage setting on FOBTs. It's a nominal or expected %age payout which is different for each game but usually between 90 and 95%
Despite all the claims of independent testing (done in Holland) and guarantees about their straightness, I honestly believe the machines in the Bigger shops have more of an edge than is claimed. This isn't necessarily so for independents with FOBTs (not that there are many left), but it's impossible to prove.

Yes, and it is displayed on each game, usually by pressing the 'help' or 'rules' button. It's on permanent display on the front of old slot machines.
It's supposed to be based on £10,000 turnover and is approximate and there is no way of establishing or proving it.

themightymac - like all sports its about how you rate players , finding out whose injured ( the real key ) and hope you don't get beat by a high kick to the corner in the last min ! Nowadays nearly 60 % of tries seem to come off kicks on the 6th tackle and the game has changed big time over the last 20 years, it now can be like aeriel ping pong at times however its still far easier to judge than Rugby Yawnion where the greatest player can only touch the ball twice in 80 mins and if the goalkicker has an off day youre cream crackered...