FOBT Stories

wise words from the 'pram'

"I am a betting shop manager. I don't enjoy opening my shop at 9am for the specific reason of taking money off of people addictted to FOBTs. I don't enjoy being open until 930pm for the simple reason of taking money off of people addictted to FOBTs. I also don't enjoy opening Christmas Eve, Good Friday and soon Bank Hol evenings. I don't enjoy having to deal with abuse off people who are**on self destruction. I enjoy my job, I love sports and have fun at work. Getting rid of these machines would make my life a great deal easier.
People who play them to excess should please seek help from GA or Gamcare. They are totally random but you cannot win in the longterm if we only pay you 35/1 on a 36/1 shot.
I have had people think i press a button behind the counter to make them win or lose. It's funny but rather sad. If it's not fun, get help. There are people that can help you get your life back on track"

As above.

But I open at 8am instead :(

You get many people coming in at 8am/opening time, just to play on the machines?

Today you could have gone to Corals and put £50,000 in an FOTB but they would have restricted you to under £200 on Spurs at 2/5

Yep. :(

To both.

dk1986 - You've gone in at opening time just to play on them?

Not really FOBT but I blew £30,000 on Live casino online in about a hour a few months ago.

Managers, is it hard to get people off the machines come closing time?

Bookies these days are glorified amusement arcades, poor old Joe would be turning in his grave at a limit on a 2/5 shot

No, I work in a Coral shop!

At 8.30am I'm usually tucking my shirt in and stirring a teabag. I shouldn't expect to be interrupted by an unemployed (I guess) 19-year-old to load his scabby fiver onto a FOBT from behind the counter, but it happens.

Dimitrios - Why such a huge amount? Roulette/Blackjack?

Im not a manager of a shop but I work for a big firm and know some managers of shops and they say they sometimes have to literally switch the machine of by the plug while the addicts are playing to get them off so they can close.

Going to have 8 in my shop soon due to loophole :(

whats the loophole NA?

If It's Wet... 01:08 post

Yes it is. You have to say "Last spins please" at around 9.26, because "last spins" means "have this spin, then a further three spins while standing a metre away with the finger balanced on the button to intimate that you're definitely coming off now", to the FOBT addicts.

Address has 2 numbers i.e. 2-4 Bookmaker Street. Means they can apply for a licence for 2 and 4 as two different shops.

Does that mean 8 FOBTs as well? :0

ROFL dk, sounds like my lad on the playstation at 10pm

Was Live Blackjack mate.

I had £15,000 in account from end of season football bet I had won,used £15,000 out my bank.

Won £12,000 back the next day.

Does not really affect my living mind. I make decent money on sports betting in a year far outweighing that loss and also have a job.

28 May 09 / 13:59 Transfer out - £2000.00 Blackjack
28 May 09 / 13:57 Transfer out - £1000.00 Blackjack
28 May 09 / 13:56 Transfer out - £3000.00 Blackjack
28 May 09 / 13:56 Transfer in + £3000.00 Blackjack
28 May 09 / 13:56 Transfer out - £3000.00 Blackjack
28 May 09 / 13:55 Transfer out - £2000.00 Blackjack
28 May 09 / 13:55 Transfer in + £4000.00 Blackjack
28 May 09 / 13:54 Transfer out - £2000.00 Blackjack
28 May 09 / 13:53 Transfer out - £4000.00 Blackjack
28 May 09 / 13:51 Transfer out - £2000.00 Blackjack
28 May 09 / 13:49 Transfer out - £2000.00 Blackjack
28 May 09 / 13:48 Transfer out - £2000.00 Blackjack
28 May 09 / 13:46 Transfer out - £2000.00 Blackjack
28 May 09 / 13:45 Transfer out - £2000.00 Blackjack
28 May 09 / 13:45 Transfer in + £5000.00 Blackjack
28 May 09 / 13:44 Transfer out - £2000.00 Blackjack
28 May 09 / 13:43 Transfer in + £5000.00 Blackjack
28 May 09 / 13:42 Transfer out - £2000.00 Blackjack

That was part of the bad run which lost me it.

Gonna put a glass partition in the shop and say its 2 shops.

aha, NA, quite a few shops would get round that too

Not as if its a quiet shop either, 7k slips and 50K+ t/o a week.

Dimitrios - I assume you've got a well paid job to bet those stakes to begin with?

If Its Wet Drink It 27 Sep 01:05
You get many people coming in at 8am/opening time, just to play on the machines?

yep, well we open at 8:30 and by 9 am you can have nearly two grand in the machines already

I believe dimitrios is a well known fisherman

Unbelieveable, i wouldn't get out of bed to feed a machine my cash.

Just shows what gambling/been an addict can do for you.

Earn about £60,000 a year but works out a lot less after tax.

Sometimes I get lucky on it,thats all really.

Most times max I would put on is a few £100 a month on Live casino just to play with.Now and again I might get up to say £3000-£5000 with that. Then I go £500/ £1000 stakes and if I get £10,000 £20,000 then I might go £2 K ETC...Have not really placed since then etc.

How many well known fishermen do you know?

him and robson greene

Marxist-Leninist


Would not fish about this mate, not something to be proud of, I assure you mate !

not like fishermen to make outlandish claims ;-)

That was a lot of money to me. HOWEVER when you think how quick life goes and also when I think that is bad it's not really. I know people my age in the mid twenties who have sadly passed away from cancer etc or are suffering with this now. For me, losing £30,000 really is nothing to worry about when you worry about friends with them diseases or relatives etc.They are real worries for me..the £ sign is not a real worry...even if I was in a hostel.

Great attitude Sir.

I am the same to be fair, at the end of the day my job don't make me loads of money, but I need a simple stress free job because, despite being 22 I have a pretty dodgy heart. So that comes before money without a doubt

Onionss























































































BOO!

those fotb's are a absolute nightmare,i was lucky enough to make a good living playing fruit machines for 15 years,and now i work for a company which makes them.
the sad thing is seeing your mates step up from these and lose everything they owned because their so addictive,even worse than the b3 £500 machines ut they continually keep playing them. :(

Marxist-Leninist


























.

For the morning-ers

Kriskin 27 Sep 01:00


wise words from the 'pram'

"I am a betting shop manager. I don't enjoy opening my shop at 9am for the specific reason of taking money off of people addictted to FOBTs. I don't enjoy being open until 930pm for the simple reason of taking money off of people addictted to FOBTs. I also don't enjoy opening Christmas Eve, Good Friday and soon Bank Hol evenings. I don't enjoy having to deal with abuse off people who are**on self destruction. I enjoy my job, I love sports and have fun at work. Getting rid of these machines would make my life a great deal easier.
People who play them to excess should please seek help from GA or Gamcare. They are totally random but you cannot win in the longterm if we only pay you 35/1 on a 36/1 shot.I have had people think i press a button behind the counter to make them win or lose. It's funny but rather sad. If it's not fun, get help. There are people that can help you get your life back on track"

But it's ok to pay 10/1 on a 25/1 shot if it's a sports bet. Or change the odds after the event if you think you were a bit too generous to start off with......... :)

sorry but what dors FOBT mean :(

project aj 27 Sep 01:34
those fotb's are a absolute nightmare,i was lucky enough to make a good living playing fruit machines for 15 years,and now i work for a company which makes them.

Known people like that and know what FOBT are about..... and still done K,s in them before they left them alone.

fixed odds betting terminal

my mate who plays on these quite alot ..he had £150 in his pocket went in to sadjokes and lost the lost in 10 mins, he came to me and i gave him £150 and he sent it back to me from his paypal account, he went back and lost this in the same machine in about 20 mins.
he then went to another friend and borrowed £100 and 10 mins later the same result ,he went back to the same lad and gave him his paperwork for his car in return for another £300 and said to him "if i dont pay u back in 2 weeks the car is yours" so he got the £300 and went back on a major chase to get his money back and u guessed it he lost the lot.
he had then used up all his funds so his mind started ticking over and he had a silly idea he remebered his 15 year old daughter had a chunky gold bracelet in her room so like an idiot he takes this to the local pawn shop and pawned it in for £280 , went back to the same machine and did the lot in ..things were now getting silly if his missis found out about all this he would have been out like a shot.
his last resort was he had a rolex watch that someone had asked him to sell on ebay for them and he took this back to the pawn shop and got £400 for it , after about £100 of it going in the machine it started to hit his big numbers and within 45 mins he had £1500 in the bank ..
he withdrew it , went and paid back all his debts and ended up with a few hundred quid in his pocket...THE LUCKY FOOKER..

this is a true story and he got very lucky to get it back ...so try and stay off them its so easy to get involved in it..

Dimitrios

I thought you were the master of the greek bet, what happened?

i never go into the bookies but have seen people sat at these when ive walked past,, whats the diffeence between these machines and what you can bet on on line ? surely they are the same ? is it just that people who use bookies tend to be more old fashioned in their gambling and dont use online betting etc so prefer to go physically play something ?

Ive never found any temptation to play on them, so i dont understand how people get so addicted, but as they do, i wish those things would be removed

They're no better or worse than fruit machines imo

They are addictive because they give people a chance to win big amounts in a short space of time with minimal effort.

Cast your minds back to when your first real involvement with betting shops....it's all foreign to you at first, but if you're half assed you'd try to understand form and odds and perhaps talk to other people for help to get to grips with how bets work. I remember when the old girl behind my local ladcrooks tried telling me what a Lucky 15 was.....meant nothing to me at the time.

These days chavs and teenagers don't bother with any effort put into their wagers....and why would they.

marychain1 27 Sep 17:18
They're no better or worse than fruit machines imo

how long to blow £1000 on a fruit machine and how long on a FOTB?

depends on your own self control and how much you play them

Payout on a fruity 70-80%
on a FOBT 95%

i'm talking about physically stuffing the money into the machines! ;-)

^^^^^ correct, at a pound a spin it wouldnt take much longer, if at all!

the payout on a fruity was over 90%

91% rings a bell

Mentioned this story a little while back, but for those that did not see....

One of my colleagues had won a competition at work along with a handfull of others based elsewhere. The prize was an all expense day at Wembley to watch England vs Slovenia in Global Draws very own box. They had a bar with as much booze as you wanted, a lavish buffet to tuck into and luxurious sofa's and seats to lounge around in.

He then went on to tell me about the 2 global draw FOBT's that they had there and how him and 5 other colleagues proceeded to empty their wallets into them!!!

i'm talking about the time it takes to "do your money" look at the gap between spins in a proper casino.

Saw some mug do over 500 quid on these today. Looked at his bank then read the Racing Post for abit, then looked over again & he was down to his last 20 quid. :(

He was one of the smart ones.

Most of them would have used the £20 too

Hardly ever play these maybe 5/6 times a year maximum. I normally just stick £1 on 5 numbers (total stake £5) if it loses i simply go home if it wins i will spin another 5r and take the 30 home. I hope everyone has the dicipline to do this.

Take £30 home?

You would have £31 ;)

Onionss

How you doing not spoke for a while. Notice i put £5r Aka around £5. :^0 joking aside hows the bank looking and have u got anything for tonight?

Yeah not bad mate, Minus my Call of Duty breaking :(

Not had a bet since Sunday (NFL) and bank looking good :D

how about you?

Things are looking nice. Could have lost a packet over the weekend (Valuev,Hearts,Man Utd, Inter) but i managed to somehow break evs. You got work tomorrow?

This is a true story- i went in a Hills one morning to get a rugby bet on about 10.30.There was a Postman in full uniform with a bag of mail beside the roulette machine happily playing away - i kid you not.

These machines are evil

not quite got them at 9am yet but ive seen some of the other shiops with 2-3 folk standing around waiting.

i know for a fact that not all of them will be putting on horse/sports bets before heading off to work, as they appear in my shop half an hour later