I am intentionally writing this post a few months later than when I was originally going to write it. The reason being is that a few months after I wrote this post -
http://muksblogaboutstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/gambling-advertisements-payday-loan.html ... -
- I saw a double page spread in the newspaper about the dangers of "fixed odds betting terminals" otherwise known as "FOBT's"which in turn are otherwise known as roulette machines. The word "fob" springs to mind and in The Oxford English dictionary the meaning is - 1. to cheat someone and 2 to put (someone) off by deception or trickery. Talk about irony.
Anyway, after reading the article, it was obvious that the reporter who wrote it, no way understood exactly how bad these things actually are. But is was almost as if they had read my post above and then decided to write about it themselves (I know they didn't do that but it is what it felt like). I wrote that post over 3 months ago and my point now being is that it seems like it's too late. Hence me writing this post now. As it is already too late for some people.
The point I am trying to make is that it should have been a double page spread in the newspaper about 5 years ago. In fact, the warning signs should have made not just a double page spread, but national front pages 5 years ago in 2008 rather than a page 12-13 double spread in 2013.
I want to write about this myself as this particular reporter, just like every other reporter that I have seen on this subject, whether it be on TV or any newspaper doesn't have any personal experience with "fixed odds betting terminals" whatsoever. In fact every single reporter I have seen ALWAYS puts in £100 to "test" these machines and then they "lose" it and then they think that they know them inside out and what it does to people.
These reporters are fucking hypocrites.
You cannot know about them unless you had proper personal experiences with them. Life changing experiences-which are never for the better after going on those machines. Not just £100 which was probably just given to them by whichever rich company they work for. It really isn't the same and they shouldn't even try to understand. So I am going to try and make everyone who may read this understand themselves INCLUDING any idiot reporters who may think that they have the right to write articles/do documentaries about them.
First of all, I want to point out that through no fault of their own, how non-gamblers are failing to realise the potential horror of what gambling can actually create. I'm going to do this by writing a few statements that have been said to me from some people I know. These statements are about other people that that they know and are just from the past few days:-
"I don't know where his money goes, but he keeps taking out payday loans and credit cards. But it's almost as if the money just disappears. He doesn't buy anything."
"He has 2 jobs, doesn't pay rent but I never see him buy anything. At first I thought he might be on drugs but he is far too healthy for that."
"He asked me money for new trainers but he works full time."
"How are they in debt? It doesn't make sense, they should have plenty of money as they have worked all their lives."
These are just some of the oblivious things a non gambler would say. For anyone that DOES or HAS gambled, the answers are all very simple:-
"They have no money because they probably gamble it all away."
It isn't a thing that would ever enter minds of people who don't gamble. It is like so beautifully oblivious that everyone that does gamble is probably jealous that they cannot have those innocent thoughts in their own minds. To have a flutter here and there in this day and age EVERYBODY who has a job would probably do. Something like the lottery or The Grand National (which I have won 4 times in the last 8 years which is crazy).
But to completely throw every single penny of your wages away for some people is an unthinkable thing to do. Unfortunately, for others, it is something that happens all too regularly. Mostly on these machines. So much money just into those machines that are now EVERYWHERE.
People cannot walk down the street without going past a bookmakers. Again, for non-gamblers, they probably wouldn't even notice them. There was one example a couple of months ago when I was with my friend and she wanted to put a bet on The Grand National. I met her and she wanted me to show her what to do and how to do it. We were on a main street in Manchester City centre. Her words were "I wonder if we will pass a bookies." My reply was "It's a pretty safe bet that we will." I know I know. The irony of the words used in that sentence too. We passed 3 in a 5 minute walk.
But why and how are there so many??
The roulette machines is why and how.
Bookmakers weren't nowhere near enough making as much profit as they are now before the machines were introduced. Now so many people are addicted to them or becoming addicted to them that bookies can afford to open more and more shops, hire more and more staff and feed more and more peoples' addiction. More bookmakers are opening just so they can have these machines. They are only allowed a maximum if 4 per shop. But they make that much money from them, that they can open a few shops just to have more machines. Even if there is a bookmakers already in a small town with (which would probably have a high unemployment rate), the same company of that bookmakers will if they could open another one just a few meters away.
For gamblers, every single bookies that opens is another place to feed their addiction. Some even believing that their luck might change going into a new place. This delusional thinking is all too common in gamblers. A new place. A new start.
It's not the way it works.
For none gamblers from the bookmakers point of view, it is another place for them to try and entice people to come in and thus ruin more lives. This is no exaggeration. This is what gambling does. Not that the bookmakers are intentionally ruining lives but it is what is happening. There are hardly people who are "controlled gamblers". There are people who never ever gamble, there are people who have a flutter once a year or so and then there are people who choose to throw their money away kidding themselves that they will get that "one big win" that will sort their lives out. This hardly EVER happens and those choice of words I know is wrong because to a gambler those exact words aren't "this hardly ever happens" but instead they are "so there is a small chance of it happening then".
And so they will keep going for that one big win that will change their lives, that will restore the balance of all the money that they have lost over the years. Not stopping to realise that they are throwing away a lot more money and never getting that big win.
So when does it end?
And how do the bookmakers entice people to come in? How can someone who is completely oblivious to everything about gambling and have such an innocent mind be persuaded to go into a betting shop in the first place? Why would they want to do that? What is the motivation?
The answer is money. Free money. Or the possibility of free money. Nobody would ever in their right mind turn down an opportunity for free money. It would be a ridiculous thing to do no matter how innocent your mind might be. Bookmakers will have "free tournaments" advertised in their huge windows which are always full size ones so you are literally seeing an advertisement that is the size of yourself and thus it is unavoidable and it would say something along the lines of "Free tournament on the machines. Come in on Saturday between 1pm-3pm for your chance to win £30 cash absolutely FREE." For somebody that doesn't gamble, why would you just pass up the opportunity to win money for free? You don't have to stake anything yourself. You just go in, you play the machine with free credit and see how much you can get it to on the game chosen by the bookmakers. You get an allocated time. If you get the highest amount out of everyone who entered the free tournament, you win free money. You have nothing to lose, right?
Wrong.
The whole point in these tournaments is because the powers that be of the bookies know full well how addictive these machines are. Giving away money is a long term investment of getting people addicted. And so claiming more victims. If someone who had never gambled won money for free, then they would most probably think that they could do it again. The same way a drug dealer would get people addicted to drugs. They make them as appealing as possible. Once the victim is addicted, they know they will then keep coming back.
Celebrities are shamelessly used to advertise/promote gambling. These fuckers don't give a shit about being a responsible role model for people. They just want to line their own pockets full of money whilst luring innocent victims to the world of gambling. to enter bookmakers who until a few years ago weren't making nowhere near the amount of money they make now due to the roulette machines.
It always starts small with the machines. Always. A couple of pounds here and there, oh I got a fiver now, I will collect that. It slowly builds. Within a couple of years that couple of pounds would have built to a couple of thousands of pounds. It is unthinkable for someone who is just starting to gamble on the machines or to the beautifully oblivious non-gamblers. I know that if they see people who put in £20 notes after £20 notes and do a maximum of £100 a spin on the roulette wheel, they would think that the people that were doing these spins were either insane or super rich. But they are neither in most cases. They are just addicted.
If every time someone put in £2 and collected £5, they would simply think "well that is just like me putting £20 and getting it to £50. The maths are the same." But it doesn't work like that. The machines are designed to take your money. They are designed to be addictive. They are designed to make you think that there is a chance of winning. Which there is. And that is where the problem is. The chance is always there. But it doesn't mean to say you are actually going to win. It just means to say you just actually THINK you might win.
Now I am not saying £2 is a little bit of money as for those that have lost everything, £2 can be a lot of money. But £2 compared to £100 IS a little bit of money. For example, after a couple of weeks of betting with just £2, those people would want to crave a higher adrenalin rush and so the stakes would go higher. But that is not where the downward spiral starts. The downward spiral starts the moment when anybody steps into the bookmakers in the first place. You have to think that the money you are going in with isn't yours anymore. It's as simple as that. Before you have placed a bet-that money that you are betting with ISN'T YOURS. It is gone. Yes you might win and then collect the winnings but unless you are one of those few people who does have a once in a year flutter then the money will always go back.
Another ironic and hypocritical thing is bookmakers seem to have small posters and leaflets advertising Gamcare. A helpline for problem gamblers. I think it is a legal requirement to have these. Like they make a fucking difference. The only time people would ring that number is after a huge loss.
I have titled this "Roulette machines" and so in my opinion and probably most people if not all who play them, if you go on the roulette machines, that money of yours is gone forever. Yes you can win. You can put in £20 and get it to £50 and leave the bookies and then go to KFC and get yourself a large Godfather meal and stuff yourself with that. But guaranteed and written in stone is that you will go back to the bookies and play on them again. But you might win again. You might then decide that life is brilliant. You put in £40 and get it to £500. Easy money, You know after 23 came out that 32 would be the next number. You have seen it so many times so you put the maximum you can on that one number which is around £13.50p which will give you around £468 back. Wow. Let's take everyone for pizza tonight. You can do this all the time now. Or not every time. You can be sensible and go now and again and just hit a number like that and that will be that.
Only the next time you go, it doesn't work out. You put in £20. Nothing. You need to win your £20 back now, it doesn't matter if you won all that money the other day. If you won that much, surely then it is easy to win £20 back. So you put in another £20. That's goes too. And then another £20 and then another £20......oh wait, it just hit 23. Number 32 is going to come out next! It's happened so many times and that will get you your money back so you put £13.50p on 32. It goes "next door". It hit 15. So close. Another £20, another £30, you start sweating, you feel nauseated another £50 goes in. Another £50. Cash machine won't give you anymore money so you pay by card at the counter. And then again. And then...again. Money is all gone. It just didn't hit your numbers. You hate yourself. You can't cry as you're too sick inside. You feel numb. But it doesn't really hit you. Not yet. You wonder how you will cope for the rest of the month. Rent? Bills? Food? What are you going to do? People are going hungry because of their addiction to these roulette machines.
For anyone who is reading this that has never been on a roulette machine before might find this difficult to understand. How can people be this stupid? What, to not pay your rent? Your bills? To not buy food? To waste money in machines? Don't be ridiculous, not many people are stupid enough to do this. What about unemployed people? How can they even afford, even think about going in a bookmakers and on these machines? How stupid must you have to be?
Again, it really isn't stupidity, it is an addiction. And there are people doing it every day. Addiction and stupidity are 2 different things. And soon enough it goes from being, rent, food, bills to rent, food, bills, credit card 1 credit card 2, loan etc.
There is a reason why the roulette machines are also known as "THE CRACK COCAINE" of the betting industry. You can lose £15,000 in an hour. Writing that even sounds weird to me but I have seen it happen so many times. People aren't just losing their money but they are losing their minds and their souls to these machines. I have seen people not going into work because they can't get off the machines. I knew one guy who was addicted to cocaine. He told me that the roulette machines "were much worse". Yet unlike cocaine, the machines are everywhere and so easy to access.
In 2001 it was scientifically proven that parts of the brain that respond to winning and losing money whilst gambling are the same that respond to cocaine and morphine.
Dopamine released from the brain is released when something pleasurable happens. If you were to know you were about to get sex for example or just the possibility of it, your brain would be expecting dopamine to be released.
So on the roulette machines say for example, with the 23 and 32 numbers coming out together or near to each other, (this is just one of thousands of examples of people thinking they can predict what number is next, but I am just using this one again) it lands on 23 and then if you believe the next number will be 32 your brain will expect this. If it lands on 32, your brain will release the dopamine making you feel amazing. If the next time, number 32 doesn't come out, the expectant dopamine isn't released and you can end up getting frustrated, irrational, disappointed etc. But then when something unexpected happens-for example, it just happens to land on a number where you have a lot of money on it, the levels of dopamine are much higher because you're not expecting it but the problem is that next time you will see what number came out before your number and your brain will tell you that. The dopamine neurons in your brain will want to see some kind of pattern or prediction but the problem with that is that there are no patterns on machines. People will THINK that they can work them out or see a pattern. People will ALWAYS say "this number will be next", "that number is coming out soon" and the worst one is "this number is due". Our brain cells are thinking that they will figure out a pattern or what number is next. IT WON'T. Yes you might hit a number you have most on because you thought it was coming out. That isn't you figuring it out and being really intelligent or clever like you have achieved something. The machine just let it happen. The human brain is wanting to see patterns that could favour you but it is impossible to KNOW what number is coming out next from a software. There might have been patterns in the past but if you think that these patterns will always happen then you actually ARE stupid and not just addicted. Maybe the machine is programmed to do this so if you hit a number with lots of money on then you do think you're intelligent and clever. It'll soon take your money back.
People constantly lose their money, go to the bank to get more and insist on going back on the same machine chasing their losses. Either because they think that their numbers are due, or that the machine is "due to pay out" or even because they are almost in what can only be described as a battle of wits against that machine. They think that they need to beat the machine. Only 1-your numbers AREN'T "due" as it is a machine and any numbers can come up anytime. Most likely, not the ones you have chosen and 2-it is a machine you are going up against. "Wits" don't come into play as much as you think they might do. The machine doesn't have a brain. It is just programmed to take your money. Some people then would change machine saying "this machine isn't paying" and think that they would be doing a clever thing by changing machines to pit their wits against that one. If you had any wits in the first place (along with willpower), you would simply just stay away full stop. As difficult as that is, it is THAT which is the most intelligent and clever thing to do. The only way to beat the roulette machines is to stay well away from them.
There is always a massive debate as to whether the machines are fixed or not. The amount of times you see people who have most of the wheel covered and maybe have one or two numbers with nothing on them and then the ball painfully landing on one of those numbers is all too common. You always hear "and they are supposed to be random". If it says that the number drawn is from a random number generator, then that is all well and good but then the question remains as to why does it screw so many people and why does it screw so many people so many times??
Well roulette is made so it has a house edge. Everyone knows that or should know that simple fact of the house edge. Something that only pays 35/1 when there is 37 numbers (including the number 0 or even 00 on American tables) OBVIOUSLY gives the house and edge. Any idiot can figure that out. The edge on a roulette wheel (European) with one "0" number is 2.7 which means that every £1000 gambled, the house would make £27. That is a plain and simple fact.
People sometimes say "oooh 7 black numbers in a row, it must be due a red". I have even seen someone complain to a cashier about that. Those kind of people are even bigger idiots than you can possibly imagine. Each spin it is under 50% chance for a red or a black. Each spin! If you were able to take the odds of having 7 black numbers in a row before the run of them, the odds would be different. But you can't do that. SO EACH SPIN IS A SPIN IN ITSELF. NOTHING IS DUE. NO LOW NUMBERS, NO HIGH NUMBERS, NO BLACK NUMBERS, NO RED NUMBERS OR ZERO OR ANYTHING. You have to be a total imbecile to think that something is "due".
But what about the roulette machines in bookmakers?? They constantly keep ruining people. It is supposed to be random! The ball is supposed to be from a random number generator! So why do so many people get screwed by covering most of the wheel and getting empty spins??
Let me explain my theory to this. I am not saying that this is right but it is just what I think:-
Let's just say for example, there are 1000 machines and there is one random number generator for all of these. At the same time, the machines have an "average payout" percentage on them. So how on earth can there be an average payout if the machines have to take a certain amount in the first place along with there being a "random number generator"?? It doesn't make sense. So let's say you did a bet which totalled to £20 and the number the ball landed on is 5 and you only had 20p on it, that would return you £7:20p but you would be down £12:80p but the machine would class it in its' programme as a "win" even though you didn't actually make any profit, it would still be classed as a "winning" spin. It wasn't a winning spin, but it was a win to the machine as it paid something and stays inputted as a win. Therefore, to get the percentages accurate on their takings, the random number generator would indeed be generating random numbers BUT it would be doing so by randomly picking numbers which have less amounts on them throughout the 1000 machines. Obviously on some of those machines the numbers could have good amounts on them, but this will be balanced by the fact that on most of the others, they won't. If you did a £20 spin and covered 20 numbers with £1, obviously any number you hit is a profit but it isn't going to keep giving you a profit every spin. Or even if it does a few times and you collect and go home happy, most probably, there is someone or some people somewhere else who have in total probably lost more than you won.
So in other words, winning numbers are generated on the total payouts being less than taken in.
Also if the machine is spun at exactly the same time as the one next to it, the same number will be drawn. It is all computerised and it is all designed to take more money. The odds are always against you on a normal roulette wheel in a casino and even though it can be classed as random in the bookmakers, they are also very much against you in the same way. But in any case like I said, being random and having an average payout doesn't make any sense. As the balls drawn are random, but the money being paid out isn't as it has to make a profit (if that is understandable).
I know that there is also the argument of "well if there is a percentage payout and a lot of people have lost, then there is a chance that it could be ready to pay out now."
Imagine a cocaine addict going into a place where it was available in 4 separate parts of the place. Imagine if within a 10 mile radius, there were 100 of these places. Imagine the cocaine addict somehow tracking all these places to find the purest cocaine that will give him the best high ever.
Not only is it impossible to do, but if a cocaine addict who needed a fix went into a place and saw it was there, he would take it. Not wait for someone else to use it first and then have some. That is the same with the roulette machines. If someone who is addicted to them sees one free, then that person will go on it. Not wait for someone else to use it first. And even if a person does use it and loses hundreds of pounds, that does not mean it is ready to pay out! Again, you have to be a total idiot to think that.
There has hardly been anything at all about the dangers of roulette machines. Apart from one TV show and a thing here and there in the newspapers. Nothing of note to really warn people about the dangers of them. The only people who warn people of the dangers of them are the people who have gone on them themselves. Unfortunately, those people are most probably still going on them, so even knowing the dangers won't make them stop.
These machines are the sole cause of more and more bookmakers being opened. Legally any one betting shop cannot have more than 4 fixed odds betting terminals. Believe it or not as I stated before, the bookmakers open shops mainly just because they can put 4 more machines there. Is there any other explanation for a small new certain company opening another bookmakers in my town centre when there is a massive one literally just 30 seconds walk away? It is purely so they can have more machines in one small area. And even though bookmakers are opening everywhere and making everything so much worse, it isn't just the gamblers that suffer. It is the people who care about them. Friends, families, lovers ALL have to be lied to.
Imagine telling your partner that you lost your whole wage in an hour. Imagine losing someone you really care about. Imagine working long and hard and then having to borrow money to pay for travel and food. Imagine having no job and wasting the little benefit money you receive. Imagine not being able to do anything with your friends and having to make excuses as to why you can't. Imagine lying all the time. Imagine feeling so empty that you can't even cry. Imagine stealing money to feed your addiction. Imagine feeling so ashamed of yourself that you want to commit suicide and end it all.
Each and every one of these things isn't imaginary. They are everyday occurrences ALL BECAUSE OF THESE FIXED ODDS BETTING TERMINALS.
There has been talk for a while that they will change them and make the maximum spin £2 instead of £100. Unfortunately, that isn't happening. But instead of that, the best thing that could happen is if THE SHIT GOVERNMENT THAT RUNS THIS COUNTRY DOES SOMETHING AND TAKE ALL THE MACHINES OUT AND GET RID OF THEM FOREVER.
I guarantee that if something doesn't get done now, there will be more suicides, more debt, more people suffering, more horror and then all those people who don't or have never gone on these machines will slowly realise what is going on, then wonder why nothing was done about it before.
You can bet on it.
