70 replies to this topic

[Bencrest]

Thought I'd come up with a thread that may or may not be useful. I'm going to post it here, and if it's not useful, it'll fall to the bottom of the heap, but I'd like to think someone benefits from it.

I've just posted in another thread that I HAVE to stop playing machines. For me personally - and I assume for plenty of other people, it's become an unhealthy obession, for a couple of reasons.

1) I thought I could control my addiction by staking the 'odd fiver here and there'. The idea was that if I was REALLY unlucky I'd end the month about £150 down. As it happens I was about £650 down last month. About the same the month before - e.t.c.

2) I've come through a bit of depression of late, and I honestly believed that playing machines would 'cheer me up'. BIG mistake. Nothing compares to the feeling of leaving an arcade of having spent more than you can afford (given my current circumstances - I appreciate theres worse things but none affect myself at the moment). The money that was supposed to go towards fathers day, gone in a flash. Having to basically bullshit to my parents that the reason I had no cash was because I'd been out of work, so all my wages went on paying bills. Bollocks. Any cash I had went into the local arcade whenever I felt down, and succeeded in making me feel more worthless and pathetic for being so addicted.

So to sum up - for me, I can't control my addiction. I've love to say 'oh I'm not addicted any more, I only play occasionally', but it's just not the case. It's got to be no more, full stop. I haven't decided about emulation yet, but playing the Fruit Machine Emulators cheers me up somewhat, and I'm worried it's just going to leave me addicted to the actual 'playing of machines', even though theres no cash involved.

Is anyone else in the same boat? Anyone else really wanting to give up - for good?

If not, thats fine. But there must be some people on here who want to change, and who are willing to discuss stuff in a thread like this. Hide behind fake usernames if you have to.

Discuss why you want to stop playing, how you got to this situation, or came to the decision to quit, where you see yourself ending up unless you manage to change your habits, or just have a bit of a chat about how you lapsed and spunked £50 into a Bar X and didn't even get a hold / nudge.

I'm happy to be honest and open about my experiences with machines, I will not lie about my losses, because doing so is lying to myself, and thats the sort of behaviour that will get things more out of control than they are now.

[todd1970]

Agree with you 100% there Ben specially on number 2 although im saying thank fook i dont have access to funds ie my wages every week that i can spunk into the nearest Party Time without the top feature going for any more than £2

[g-man]

I was in that boat once.

It only took me ten years from deciding I needed to quit to actually doing it...

Not trying to depress you or anything.

[dtrmad2004]

thats spooky see my reply in the other thread

I see the part about using MFME and it DOES make you want to play the real ones I found anyway I quit the real ones and I quit MFME over time (btw I still keep a full set of FME roms if anyone wants em I'll send over) odd I keep the evil that addicted mes code and f***ed off the emulator that runs em. Good luck Ben and be strong if you DO play em don't feel so bad tomorrows a new day start again.

Quite true.

Also hanging around FME forums dont help neither.

Think ive quit machines about 5 times now, I mean seriously actually to the point of hating them and feeling good where you can pass the arcade by and laugh to yourself about how much a mug you are.

Then something happens in life where you are in a position of coming into some money and are bored, where do I find myself....... Cains amusements lol.

Alot of the time I have just been in town looking through the gameshops ect ect and think nahh I cant justify buying that or its a waste of money but I end up in the arcades within the next hour.

Its only when I walk out and I realise shit I might aswell have bought what I was looking at as now i've got nothing other than just enough for a pouch of bacci.

Dunno where the logic comes from :S

Andy

[waltzer]

If you dont stop you are going to end up in a huge mess and the financial mess you inherit from gambling will also be riddled with lies and deception that no doubt involes your loved ones and freinds,if your employer finds out your an addict they can also eleviate you of any financial handling.

heres a story...its real.....

My cousin had a car crash in october 2003 whilst moving home, a week later he was due to go on holiday with his girlfreind but because of his injuries he was advised not to fly ,so his gf went on holiday and left him at home. His holiday coincided with his birthday and he was bored alone on his own so he went up town and thought he'd go into the arcade and play a few fruitys....

2 weeks later him and his gf are at home when his mum and dad appeared on his doorstep and say they have something to tell him, his dad is terminally ill and dosnt know how long he has but as there is no treatment for the condition so its a case of sit and wait........

his girlfreind has a job that takes her out of the house in evening or sometimes she stays away working,he was working in a city 30 miles away and they were''invisble'' too each other during the day and sometimes the evening.........they also had separate bank accounts......

fast forward to june 2005.....

i had a barbecue one night and me and my cousin were talking(beer talking) he somewhere in the conversation dropped in the the words ''i need help,i owe £48000.00 on credit cards/loans and im also 2000 overdrawn''......i didnt remeber this until the hangover the next day

to add to his desparate situation his dad who was still with us was told he had maximum of 3 months left......

i had to moderarte a meeting with him and his girlfreind when he told her what he'd done,she had no idea as he'd hidden the whole thing, he'd intercept the post in the morning,when she went too work he'd go to the arcade,in his lunch hour he'd spend it in various arcades in the city,everyone in the arcades knew him because he was a bit of a ''high roller'' but it wasnt on s16 it was on low tech like party times/goldrush stampede/monopoly/golden x ....

he only had a salary of £14K and basically lived and gambled on on credit for 2 years solid,refinancing and swapping ''deals'' alone i worked out had cost him £18000 .......his dad died in the september of 2005, luckily his gf stood by him and his mum but neith was in a position to pay off what we eventually a £48000.00 debt we tried contacting those debt people on tv and the web but they are not intrested in very high personal debts unless you home has capital and his didnt at the time

so now in 2007 he still has no money,he goes to work and goes home but all his £1000 a month wage is repaying his debt,his gf supports him completley but he has no life because of the fruitys,she treats him from time to time but he'll never have financial control again as he says even though he hasnt gambled for 2 years he still gets the urge, ive never let him see these fme sites as i think it can sustain the addiction when there no cash

...one more thing his debt was £48000.00 in 2005 its now £30000.00 so thats £18000.00 less in two years,we reckon itll be 2011 before hes debt free and hell be 38 by then but a vast chunk of his life has been robbed by the addiction and that cant be replaced, also the fact that from the moment he was outed none of us will ever leave money lying around in his presence again, to stop him being tempted........the moral of the story????just quit the bloody things now before you wake up and discover youve screwed yourself for a bloody eternity....

i work in an arcade/ fair from time to time for my best freind hence the name waltzer, he owns a very small amusement park with a considerable arcade as the ''anchor'' attraction...ive watched the people in the £25/£500 jackpot area over the last 5 years...the same people come in in fazes,i presume depending on their financial situation ,all of them have the same idea that they will win and leave but they never do, they just withdraw cash from the atm ,change it for coins and off they go to throw it away,when they are embarrsed to change anymore with me(in know them well) theyll use the party time video arena with note changers where i cant see them or use the other change machine we have tucked away....ive seen them win £2000 on the s16's and play that back through and more in the next week, its gaurenteed income for my freind, hell give drinks and sandwiches....what a small outlay for a large return ,he even use to give them packets of fags to stop them going outside!!!

Its sad to see the ritual behaviour of all these people day in/day out but im betting they are deep in financial worries and lies to someone somewhere....

[mrmystery83]

I posted a reply to a similar thread not so long ago. I think you have to have a reason to quit. I guess like any addiction smoking, drinking etc. You have to want you quit though. Tell yourself why you have to. It does depend on how much you spend on them i guess. Well i bought two off e bay thinking that it'd stop me playing them when i was out. WRONG! Neither of them have been powered up in about 18 months and i may have to sell them to make up for the money i spend on fruities when i go out!

My fiancee doesn't know yet. As i put in the other thread. Machines contributed to the breakdown of my other relationship. I'm trying not to let history repeat itself but it's getting tricky. But now i know i HAVE to pack them up. For me and for her. It's not just affecting me anymore. If i lost then i just didn't go out end of. But now it's my future i'm messing about with.

I have cut down. I used to be in the arcade every day i was off work. I did have a bit of a lapse the other day, but only spent £20 (well £50 odd if you count putting my winnings back in !). I had more on me but left with it. Not done that for a while. I'm heading in the right direction. I doubt i'll ever stop completely playing. But as long as i keep it affordable and don't go mad then i should be able to keep on top of it.

It's like any addiction. You have good days and bad days. You can 'fall off the wagon' but you've just gotta try and get back on it and carry on the best you can.

[jamesb99_1999]

Good luck Ben,

However I would say that there is no such thing as an ex-addict. I do believe it's a case of 100% give up or nothing! And there are several other threads which talk about getting somebody else to control finances etc. Which is a good idea.

I wasted an absolute fortune when I was younger and ocassionally splurge still, however invest almost every penny I have spare, and tie my time up so much that I don't have much time or spare "cash" to waste on them..

Unfortunately avoiding them is impossible as they will be sticking them in toilets with the men spraying perfume before we know it.

Good luck Ben and Mr Mystery and all who are trying to give up though, and as has been said before, think about that holiday to Barbados you could go on instead of wasting your money!!

I remember when I was a teenager wasting my busfair home and having to jog 10 miles to get back... Side effect of it was that it go me very fit... Bad effect was I could have had best clothes and stuff but ended up counting pennies as a teenage while doing two jobs!!!

[g-man]

...Good luck Ben and Mr Mystery and all who are trying to give up though, and as has been said before, think about that holiday to Barbados you could go on instead of wasting your money!!

Good idea - go to a country where gambling is illegal and there's no internet and stay there for as long as you can - a year or two, preferably.

One way to lose the habit.

[jamesb99_1999]

Good idea - go to a country where gambling is illegal and there's no internet and stay there for as long as you can - a year or two, preferably.

One way to lose the habit.

That was why I moved to Ostrich eggs!

[nails]

should have got an IVA and paid it off in a fraction of the time and a fraction of the cost

[gambogaz1]

It's not easy Ben. I've tried quitting many times over the years but i learnt that if i can't quit i can at least try and control my problem.
The 1st place to start is the arcades, It's very very rare i step foot in 1 these days. Too many machines on low payouts, workers cooperating with sharks, Machines capable of taking big money off you.
There used to be a time when I'd walk in a pub and play whatever machine was in their but now thanks to all the info available off the net I'm more choosy with what I put my money into.
You've got to try and change tho m8. The money lost on machines is scary when you look back, but now I can treat myself to things again.

Good luck m8.

[DJDONKEY]

Ben, I noticed on your post you put "not played since 24/6" How's it going 4 days later?
I do know how tough it is. Certainly wasted £1000's in my time. For what it's worth, I wish you the best of luck in giving up.

[Bencrest]

It's gone shit.

Better change my sig to say from today instead. Put £1 into a machine last night without thinking, won £60 (BFM Hot Rod on 10p - one winline - /£25, got Super Skill Stop for Mega Streak, and some afters).

Put the lot into a Powerball machine earlier today, and went to Aldi next door to get some cashback to put even more into it. In the end I only lost the original £50 but it's disgraceful. Times like this I realise just how hopelessly addicted I am.

It's a f*****g nightmare. Must try harder. F- e.t.c.

Just got to not go near a bastard machine. At all... and for as long as possible.

Anyway, just got to keep trying - a bit harder this time - and if I play another one I'll have to get some outside help.

[hitthesix]

yeah it is bloody hellish trying to give up, but take a day at a time
say to yourself i ain"t gonna gamble today.and buy yourself something even if you don"t need it.
if you say you ain"t gonna gamble ever again well as you know ( and most of us have done) gone and pressed the self destruct button. i know how you feel mate
just glad that there is only one arcade in my town ( and have been recently been banned). thank f**k
but if you live in a town that has a few arcades it must be bloody murder walking past them.

good luck

[RoadRunner]

unfortunately I'm in the been there tried that boat

I've poured my heart out on occasions, mainly on FF regarding my ridiculous losses - but it doesn't help, you still end up going again. Thats why you're addicted to it - you can't live without it.

[g-man]

- you can't live without it.

Of course you can - you just *think* you can't.

[carlosgee]

it is indeed hard i got an IVA with All Clear Finance and they sorted me out no end, waiting to intercept th mail, rushing to all tel calls, "im sorrys hes out can i take a message" or "hes with a sick relative". Now not bothered about post or tel calls, they send me a letter every yr just to do a finances review and in two and half years will be free of it. I do still sometimes do 20-40 which is still a bit by i can walk away now, i go in about 2 times a mth so that i have curbed it right down, but the feeling "party time has had 75 in, its gotta go up soon" has passed, but good luck to all, i tried quitting it was too hard but i stated what amount to play with and test myself with more money in my wallet and i can leave with the remainder in tact

[£6 In Tokens]

It's gone shit.

Better change my sig to say from today instead. Put £1 into a machine last night without thinking, won £60 (BFM Hot Rod on 10p - one winline - /£25, got Super Skill Stop for Mega Streak, and some afters).

Put the lot into a Powerball machine earlier today, and went to Aldi next door to get some cashback to put even more into it. In the end I only lost the original £50 but it's disgraceful. Times like this I realise just how hopelessly addicted I am.

It's a f*****g nightmare. Must try harder. F- e.t.c.

Just got to not go near a bastard machine. At all... and for as long as possible.

Anyway, just got to keep trying - a bit harder this time - and if I play another one I'll have to get some outside help.

Just seen this post, Hope this help Ben:

It differs for everyone, giving up the fruity's, because everyone is different and every one's addiction is slightly different. I myself I'm not to bothered if I play them o not (no smoking in the arcade has made me quit). Ben you sound like you need help - and quick. I have sympathy for you, we have probably all been there before.

The key thing I think, is to find something else to do, could be anything. Even a different form of gambling (everyone gambles) just a different buzz. Try Irish Lottery (I had 3 number a couple of weeks ago), or Poker with your mates (only take so much with you). The Fruit Machines from my point of view were great when they had low jackpot - Project Coin days (£100 could last days if not weeks) - Now with the new machines £100 may only last 10 minutes, and that's 1 hour at £600 (won't earn that money anywhere).

Think it's time you had a good look in the mirror and start taking this seriously - Otherwise you will end up in the (you know what). You can only go to the well so many times before it runs dry.

:devil:

[Gazeyre1966]

FACT: Most Fruitie addictions are down to another personality disorder however hard that is to admit to yourself.

You need to realise what that disorder is. I've posted about this before and a simple search of the threads will reveal other good experiences FE users have been through.

In case anyone else wonders what my disorder used to be it was attention seeking.

Fruit machines caused me to fall out with all my family and friends. They caused me to live "homeless" for 3 months as I couldn't pay the rent. I lost all my belongings, self-esteem and all for that stupid f*****g buzz of winning!!! I've lost enough money between the ages of 17-33 to pay for a f*****g HOUSE!!!! Well no more for me. I did get counselling help and now (eventually, age does help) realise what a prat I was and now I enjoy my earnings, treating myself and watching other people throw their hard earned cash away. We all have to learn sometime Ben. It took me 16 years. Hopefully you will read this and learn a little from my experiences.

Good luck.