35 replies to this topic

[g-man]

I wouldnt say it makes you an idiot if you play for fun.

Loads of people play them for fun, you just have to control the amount you spend.

Well if you're rich I suppose it might be a 'fun' way of throwing your money away. :roll:
If you're not rich,and you can't really afford to lose on fruit machines,then yes,you are an idiot for playing them. :twisted:

[dave1de]

Thats why you should not gamble with more than you can afford to lose

[diceman1]

I have never considered myself addicted to the fruities although i think in the whole i probably was but was not an idiot. me and the wife used to go in once a week and set ourselves a limit on how much to spend as we used to enjoy doing this and we never went out to the pub drinking as we were both teetotallers so this was our enjoyment as others have have the enjoyment of meeting people at pubs and have a few pints.
once we lost the money that was it and didn't go back in until the next week... on the occasional times we were up we used to put the money away and save it for something else but it got to the point where i was looking forward to the day we went to the local arcade and thought this is getting out of hand when i start looking forward to going as a means. Then one day we were in when after about £40 (i had spent winnings saved up as the machine was backing something i have never done (chased a machine) but felt confident it was going to pay out big :evil: ((the addiction growing)) when it wouldn't take the money just kept dropping out the bottom the engineer came and looked at it but after it was still the same. said i will have turn it off after talking on the phone to the area manager who said it could be the mpu that was faulting and would have to come and look at it. )

now i was getting pissed as i had put money in it and through no fault was going to lose that money without the chance to win it back. I explained to them that if i had put the money in and lost then fine but still had money to play and would not be given the chance to get it back so i deserved my money back. I told this to the area manager over the phone and he agreed with me but couldn't give me my money back as it the policy of all arcades but what he would do is leave the machine off when it was fixed until we came in again and took my number. So i said i wouldn't be in while next week and he said ok it would stay off until then. I then told this to the staff and they agreed it would be done so i left it at that. 2 days later i get a text message to say it was fixed so we thought ok we will go down today and play it.

worst mistake ever :oops: Afterwards realised my mistake but not at the time.... Went in put another sixty quid in (still backing) got the streak but only paid me £45 one jp and 4 £5 wins put twenty back in to get it to go again but didn't and left feeling awful at putting £75 in a machine.

when i thought about it afterwards they could quite easily have played it until it streaked big time then filled the hopper back up so would be tight for quite awhile as it was with me £60 no win (it was one of those like party time with £5, £10 and £25 jp (i know not the best payers but me and the wife have always done quite well on them (always lost but had entertainment for our money)))

needless to say not been in an arcade since unless with kids in blackpool where we all play the 2p shover things that have toys in them.
what i did was buy some electrical equipment on credit with the money we would go in the arcade with and pay for the items instead....

we now for our enjoyment go to the casino once every couple of months and take £60 no other means of getting money and play 5 card poker still lose but take alot longer to lose it and occasionally have come out there with a good profit if cards have been lucky but never had aq bad enough night to lose it all.... worst night was played 4 hours and lost £40 so a good night entertainment.....

All i can say is i learnt my lesson with fruities and arcade owners on that one occasion and feel i got a lucky break as i think i would have played more and more chasing streaks and high wins but felt gutted enough to say never more..... but still wanted to go back the next week to try and get my money back.... thankfully one of the kids poorly from school all that week and we couldn't get down so passed... but when pass them sometimes feel like come on we will just have a tenner and see but refrain from it

this was 2 years ago and it is still there so my heart goes out to all those of you out there trying to kick the habit but keep at it.

[g-man]

I know it sounds harsh,but I think anyone who seeks out gambling,*knowing* the dangers,is basically managing their addiction(mind you,that's better than totally giving in to it,and I think all us ex-addicts are just managing our addiction).
If you play with someone else you're a lot less likely to go the route of chasing losses,so that's a good thing.
Most fruit machine players are young[ish],male,play on their own and tend to be fairly intense about their playing.
That is when you are in real danger of becoming a hard-core addict.
:?

[slikmik]

"Most fruit machine players are young[ish],male,play on their own and tend to be fairly intense about their playing.
That is when you are in real danger of becoming a hard-core addict. "

^^^ Wow hit the nail on the head 8O

I used to go to pubs several times a week, and just whack coin after coin into the machines on my own. How sad i must have looked :-?

Anyways you realise just how bad it is when you think to yourself after leaving the pub "its only £30" and try to shrug it off... And when your skint as anything like i am at the moment until next payday every pound counts, i'm now thinking in terms of 50p for a nice cold can of coke at work on a hot day. I'd rather buy a couple of cans for myself and my department than put it in a frigin fruity anyday...

[diceman1]

Don't know if this is useful or not but when we stopped going in and the temptation to go in was strong remembered that feeling i had when lost money: gutted, depressed and sat there all day thinking what i could have bought with the money instead of blowing it in a machine where the only winner was the arcade owner.

This was one way that worked for me and i just walked past the arcade and spent the money on other things instead 8)

[slikmik]

Well its been a good few weeks now and i must admit i feel a lot better than usual

Havn't been in an arcade, i can now actually walk past one easily, don't even need to glance in or anything, just "walk on by" and ignore the flashy lights asking for your money...

Had a few quid in the machines in the pubs when i've been out but purely for fun and no more than like £5 or so after a couple of drinks which is fine in my view.

It helps i have my own machines now, got the first 2 Italian job fruities, the first set at £5 which i am selling on ebay as we speak (anyone interested check it out! user: mikeyboy2k4) - Once youve put a few hundred in at home you soon realise how much they rip you off!! :roll:

Anyway i just want to say thanks to everyone who's replied to this thread - what a friendly bunch

Cheers
Mike

[Bencrest]

- Once youve put a few hundred in at home you soon realise how much they rip you off!! :roll:

Cheers
Mike

Yup, my Spiker once took £80 off me round the back in one session, and thats always set to at least 80% [ I think it was 86% at that time ].

How did I quit? I took up darts again, so that when I did go to the pub, I would focus on that. Also, I gave my dad the keys to Spiker [previously I would lose loads, empty the cashbox and go to the pub(s) with say £150 in coins - NOT a good idea!!].

With dad having the keys, I just chuck all of my shrapnel and £1 in the machine, if I win it goes back in [hell, its a moneybox really!], and then ONLY take out say a £10 note to the pub. If I'm gonna stay there all night for darts e.t.c, just leave £10 behind the bar for yourself, and then it isn't burning a hole in your pocket, ready to jump into a note acceptor

BarcrestBenito

[airlineeye]

[align=center:50d0e1f3b1] Im only a teenager (soon 15) And the way i look at is going to an arcade with £10 or £20 for the day is a good idea rather than taking a credit card and tonnes of cash cos it goes without you even knowing like that. Winning say £30 or something from about a fiver in a club machine is great to me. But i never (5/7 times) put it all bacdk into another machine... I usually think of it as being up so i take out what i went in with (£10 maybe) take the other £20 and spend it on something nice... and if i feel I MUST go back in i only spend what i ever went in with. Luckily for me i live miles and miles from my nearest arcade so i dont have the chance to spend all my dosh so i dont actually know how hard it is if your just living next to an arcade... sorry.

But my words of wisdom (probably dumb lol) today are take all your money and spend it in an arcade for an hour or two.... then take all your money the next week and buy a really nice gift for family or friends and see how much better it feels to spend your money a different way.

Buying your own fruity is even a good idea... spend your weekly arcade allowance (£150 maybe 8O ) and buy a fruity off ebay or something then you can sit at home and stick all your money in, take it out and stick it all back in time after time and im sure eventually you will get extremely bored...

Hope ive helped anyone. :roll: [/align:50d0e1f3b1]

[evanjenkins]

Awful story here, i live in a small town, and in the local chippy is one of those irritating 5 quid JP bastards that always end up taking your money. Well im 17 now and been gambling on fruities for about a year now, got started by a mate, and he's still whacking loads into the machines around the area. But recently, a couple of kids got talking to him and now i see these kids about 8 - 10 years old going in and putting their money in, and when they have none left they actually go home and come all the way back with a little bit more. Really bad.

[Bencrest]

...Which is why I am still awaiting the removal of £5 license free machines from such locations.

Not being mean, but I knew people that ran burger/kebab bars that would get several jackpots [normally forcing the IM until they got £15] from the machines before they opened [using cash from the cashboxes], and therefore basically guarentee a healthy profit from the kids that were in there.

Kids may think that I'm being a pr**k, stopping them from having fun - but when you got to the stage I was at [pawning games consoles, stealing spare change] to play them, before I was even 16, you can see theres more to it!

[happily machine free for as long as I can remember - I think it's about 6 months now ]

[jay2]

here's a stry thats sad not funny
about a man who had no money
he had a job dont get me wrong
but the wage he earned didnt last him long

just one in the pub would start his fix
and then another until hed sunk six
and seven and eight and nine and ten
and just one more then twenty and then

he'd beenin the pub since about four thirty
not one pint did he have,he wasnt thirsty
his only thought when he entered the pub
was the fruity he liked not drink or grub

the twenty he sunk were pounds not beer
the fruity he liked was costing him deer
theres somthing wrong,its not paying out
a few more quid and theres no dought

i'll win the big one and all will be fine
but pound after pound and time after time
he'd win a bit,not as much as he lost
but he does'nt care,not least the cost

his wallet is empty no more can he try
its time to go home,to his mates he would lie
"I'm goin home i'm no longer thirsty"
he'd been there one hour...its only five thirty

[Bencrest]

I'll never forget how I felt when I lost £150 in a Pie Factory 1 [2x nights at £75 a night] - bear in mind I was on UNDER £40 a week at that point, and hopefully you could understand. You reach a point when all you do is lie in bed at night and think 'why?' - I could have done anything with that cash :

a) bought something useless but at least had SOMETHING,
invested the cash and made 20p interest a year or something,
c) donated the cash to charity and at least known I'd benefitted someone, or
d) paid off some stuff I owe to certain credit people [*ahem* Argos Card *ahem].

Now that I think I'm finally free from machines [about 6 months and no machines], I'm so much happier - ANY machine - modern or not - £5 or £2000 can take £10 to get ANY return, which is something some people seem unable to get to grips with.

'78% payout' means that over the £1000s the machine takes in its period on site [I took £700 from a £15 AWP in a pub on 20p play recently], that the machine keeps £220 of that [or close, with about £1000 in, depending on how played, they'll be close to percentage] - and that means SOMEONE has to lose £220. At least it won't be me now!

I've given up on the GGs as well [following 2 bets on Christmas eve, 2x50p E/W on 20/1 shots on the Virtual races, one coming 1st and one coming 2nd for a £14.50ish profit for a £2 stake].

Theres better ways of having fun than putting up money and suffering the mental torment that follows when you inevitably lose

[deadsy]

This one's easy.

Q: How do give up the fruit machines?
A: Have you thought about taking up the heroin?

[Gazeyre1966]

Just you stay away from those machines Bencrest....Reading this thread brings the horrible truth back home to me....Apart from 1 lapse a few months ago (where I stuck around £70 in an Italian Job 2 machine)...I've been clean for 3 years now. I'm now in a good job, enjoy my drink at weekends and holidays and have plenty of money to treat friends and am saving for a nice holiday this year. You would be surprised how far your money goes if you stay off them. £100 might not sound very much to some people but if you go out for a night then see how much you can get for your money instead of playing poxy machines.

[iain1]

If anyone on here knows someone who puts alot of money on the real fruities,tell them to put there money in a bank,save up,buy a windows xp computer,get on the internet,then register here,then they can play all the fruities they like for only the price of an internet phone call (which like me is only 1 and a half pence per hour!!!),and they will save SO MUCH MONEY every month that they will thank you for it........

8-)