11 replies to this topic

[shajder]

I know this has been discussed many times, but I lost a (relatively) small amount of money the other night and it really p*ssed me off. So I wanted to moan about it!!

Went in to a Weatherspoons in my new town and had a go on Devil of a Deal. £10 in, 25p a go and only 2 holds - WTF?! 40 presses of the start button and only 2 holds? What sort of fun is anyone going to get out of that? I also went on a couple of others....Murphys Millions I think (?) and one of the million DoND machines. F*ck all from both of them with £5 in each. Got on the Murphys board once, offered me £3 then ? and lose. DoND did exactly the same. I ended up spending £25 in less than no time on the machines. Not a lot I know, but this was quick and I was fuming afterwards.

I really REALLY hate the fruit machines these days. I've also noticed that less machines are having a 25p or 30p a go option. It's usually 50p minimum. Even if you do get a 25p/30p option, you only get 1 winline, so you are never going to win anything.

Why have they made them like this? I f*cking hate them.

Obviously the answer is to avoid them, which I usually do, but you think that you might get something decent one day and should be able to have a little fun or entertainment without having to spend a fortune. £10 would have got you loads of entertainment out of the old machines that were 20p/25p a go, e.g. Andy Capp, Viva Las Vegas and fairly newer ones like Vamp It Up, Hellraiser, etc.

Same issue with the quiz machines. You expect to get a bit of entertainment time out of them, but for some reason, they never pay out and can kill you quickly. I've never known anyone to win a quiz machine 'jackpot'. You start answering the questions without much trouble (I'm not a numpty!) and then they come up with something like "What year did my mum lose her left shoe in Skegness?" FFS! I'm not expecting to win loads of money, but it just seems that they are just as bad as fruit machines. You might put £10 and choose Deal or no Deal. You might need 30000 points to get through to the win game, but suddenly, even after pumping in loads of money, you find yourself having to win 60000 points to get there. How does that work?

I really hope that the industry collapses and they remove all machines. Won't happen, but it would serve companies like Bell Fruit, Barcrest, Red, etc, right for being thieving scum. It's also not against anyone else here that own arcades, etc, but they are making a killing.

Anyways - that's my rant over.....for now.

Anyone else got any recent cases of machines taking the p*ss?!

[vectra666]

i totally agree with you they all seam to scam loads of money out of you these days except one time when i put a fiver in a £70,er andtook the jp out very rare even the £5,er down seasides skank you loads putting in £40 to win a fiver i play online bingo and the slots on there pay out better the other month for example £20 in 25p for 20 lines (1p per line) took over £800 out on free spins paid for last years and this years hols on the profit but they also can take too bring back the £6 jp machines far better

[Nudgeman]

On line slots can be evil. Also on line bingo is horrific % payouts. I saw a munter put £3 in the darts machine in my local and he got jackpot that board. I was going to go on it myself, but some fat bloater had left her sprogs running around near the damn thing and I thought I'd wait for them to disperse. Early bird and worms etc I guess. You can't really moan about getting one board in a fiver and it giving you £3 then killing you, it has to save to pay someone the £70, maybe not me, maybe not you, probably the bloke who put £3 in the darts themed machine in my local - jammy c*nt that he is! Errr let's see, Devil of a Deal, I nearly always play on 50p you **usually** get a board within a fiver as remember tridents are active on 50p. Be careful of £1, I've heard of big board costs. Some DonDs are poor though, stay away from Double Take in particular, £12 for a roll in board, offer £2 then die. Other than that, there are good machines out there - it's just like any form of gambling really, you have good days and not so good days.

[mattparr95]

Machines these days are - all agreed - Bullshit.

I went into my amusement arcade to play some pool but the table was occupied at the time, so I saw the newer Monopoly machine (not Bell Fruit Monopoly, or Road to Riches, the other one) and put £3 into it - the option was 30p a go, 50p super payouts or £1 mega game or something. So I played the 30p a go option and it just ate the £3 like it was nothing - so I slid a £10 note into the machine and it gave me 3 nudges and 1 hold for my money, I slid another £10 into the machine and got 2 holds. Thats seriously it. So I thought, f*** this, I have to put a £20 note in and get my money back - £20 note in, and about £10 later it span in 3 cars and activated the board, only to go add cash (£1.60) Add feature (Stoppa fruit or similar prize) and then mystery. I hit the 'boom or bust' button and it just went 'card win - 20p' f*****g great - £45 into this piece of crap and it goes to 20p.

[jim2311]

been said loads of times,they are set to play like this now,take laods then pay a £140 mega streak or similar,then back to rob mode again.

My name must be Mode....

[jundlemaker]

He meant more, not mode.

[treasure island]

I must say that the popularity of the £70 Jackpot is not high. There are far more losers than winners...Many will argue that this has always been the case, but everyone stood a chance of winning a Jackpot when they were £15.

The £70 Jackpot is far far too big and frankly is only played by people that are BIG punters or simply do not mind inserting note after note after note. YES you can potentially win some life changing (lol) £140 but the fact is that what you will lose trying to get that win is also life changing.

I would never want to see the industry collapse, just revert back, something that it will never do. Many of you know that I am actually an arcade owner, but you will also know that we operate machines that give AMUSEMENT, so there are no big Jackpots of any kind. We do not even have £25's which to be honest were not all that bad, especially the earlier ones.

I still like a punt myself, and not being allowed to play our own machines (although other arcades do--- so wrong) I have little that I would want to play. I am quite happy bunging £20-30 into a VIZ or a Donkey Kong, not going for a WIN as such but knowing I have 1-2 hours entertainment. That for me is money well spent, I cannot be doing with putting £100 into a DOND to be offered a fiver.

Just my personal opinion and are not a representation of the arcade.

[shajder]

Treasure Island - my comment about wanting the industry to collapse was a bit harsh, so I'll rescind it, but I wish they would revert back too. They should have the jackpot as £30/£35 maximum and not force some machines to only allow 50p a go minimum stake. Or keep the £70 machines, but also bring back the smaller jackpot machines.

I know you are an arcade owner and from what I've seen, your place looks top notch! Exactly how the arcades should be!

One other thing, how does £5 jackpot / 20p a go sit with everyone? Some places in Southend have machines like that. I think it should be 10p max for a £5 jackpot. You could (in theory!) get £70 jackpot off a machine for 25p a go, but for 5p less a go, the jackpot goes down to £5! Not right in my book!

I think I might just buy a fruit machine for the house - that way I'll never lose.....but never win either!

Was looking at pinball machines, but can't really justify spending over £3k.

[treasure island]

Tbh if i saw a machine set to 20p play £5 jackpot in an arcade i would play it,as i know boards are plentyfull and jackpots are pretty regular aswell.Obviously if your im a shit arcade with dodgy 78% and below machines,the game play will be thin on the ground.

Fully agree with that. The less difference between the stake and prize the BETTER the game. With a 20p game the jackpot is only 25 times the Jackpot. With the £70 jackpot if played at 25p it is a staggering 280 times the stake and even at its TOP stake 70 times the stake, hence the poorer game.

I also agree that low percentage games are vile. Services are 70%, train stations the same. Pubs 74% to 78% and arcades vary. We have an average % of 82-86% and run games upto 94%.

The software gets updated to much these days too. What was passed in the testing houses (legal requirement) is not what you end up playing. The customer will play an updated program. Regretably an updated program is often a tightened version of the previous software.

[chris999]

One machine i noticed which is rigged is skill bingo i played this a few times and won once £6.00 now if you are fast there should be no problem getting a full house or a line so you would think, but if you have played this game you will know you are on a timer and what happens when you get near a line or house the balls coming at you get slower so you run out of time!!!