We could do with a new game

bubbles · Post by **bubbles** » Wed Sep 30, 2015 1:25 am

quiz machines are shit to the vast majority - several times i've put money in them waiting for a fruit and, apart from killing time, i cannot see the point? however, i do inhabit a different world to most, the world where winning or losing £20 in a minute means very little!

cp999 · Post by **cp999** » Wed Sep 30, 2015 11:23 am

bubbles wrote:also, and i'm surprised this hasn't sunk in yet - when alot of pubs don't want a fruit machine (that could easily take a grand a week), why the fuck would they want a quiz? in my opinion quiz machines should be on freeplay or have their payout format revolutionised, eg a win of over a fiver not being miraculous to attain for the average player. this is just not possible though, and you pros are the reason why!

It was always a sort of social thing and an alternative (more savoury) choice to a fruit. On the financial side, you're obviously right though. There are virtually no pros left btw, the manufacturers are totally paranoid. It's nothing like the 80s or 90s when anything vulnerable (and virtually everything was) had the shit kicked out of it; I've not seen another pro in years and I would happily bet that most of the alleged "pros" on this forum are playing on the side from their jobs, not full-time. Being quite open about my status now - I am full-time, and it's my only source of income other than investments, but things are at the stage where if I'd not stashed a fair bit of cash when the going was good I would genuinely be quite concerned. From where I'm sitting there has been a seriously adverse reaction to the events of the last few years since the HMRC regulation changes; then again there have been some very good games around (for seriously dedicated pros), a few scams and a few empties. I think it's fair to say that a certain gentleman (we'll call him C.) and myself covered a fairly large geographical area in our (completely independent) ruthless exploitation of these possibilities.. I find the reaction consequential to these events, because I know what they were and how damaging they could be to machine intake; others find the reaction a consequence of the regulations, pub gentrification, and the general climate for gambling in increasingly varied forms. The truth is probably in between.

cool · Post by **cool** » Wed Sep 30, 2015 6:34 pm

Hasnt anybody noticed that there a fewer fruities in pubs these days? There are many pubs around without either AWP's or SWP's . The contraction within the SWP sector gets the most attention but the trend within the AWP sector is there though less dramatic. Apart from the Gastro pubs there are chain pubs that are going more open plan with mainly dining where a fruity or quiz machine looks out of place.

SoccerHQ · Post by **SoccerHQ** » Wed Sep 30, 2015 9:14 pm

It's very true, think of all the new 'spoons that are opening weekly across the U.K. Hardly any of the ones I visit just to have a look have a quiz machine, still 1-2 Fruit Machines.

muddle · Post by **muddle** » Wed Sep 30, 2015 10:08 pm

bubbles wrote:it is a similar situation with fruit pros, except because the money involved is so huge, everyone can take their slice. although to be fair i am amazed that the botton level that contribute all the money continue to do so? imagine the quiz world that had thousands of people regularly losing over £50 in ten minutes and multiple units in virtually every pub?!

I was thinking of asking you that question actually - who are the people regularly losing on bandits,and why are they doing it? I don't suppose you mind as long as they keep doing it of course,but are they not aware that there's loads of bandit pros around who are much better than they are?
Also,do you reckon a bandit can really take a grand a week? I get the general impression that most pub bandits (especially city centre ones) are played by at least one pro every day.

muddle · Post by **muddle** » Wed Sep 30, 2015 10:31 pm

cp999 wrote:It was always a sort of social thing and an alternative (more savoury) choice to a fruit. On the financial side, you're obviously right though. There are virtually no pros left btw, the manufacturers are totally paranoid. It's nothing like the 80s or 90s when anything vulnerable (and virtually everything was) had the shit kicked out of it; I've not seen another pro in years and I would happily bet that most of the alleged "pros" on this forum are playing on the side from their jobs, not full-time. Being quite open about my status now - I am full-time, and it's my only source of income other than investments, but things are at the stage where if I'd not stashed a fair bit of cash when the going was good I would genuinely be quite concerned. From where I'm sitting there has been a seriously adverse reaction to the events of the last few years since the HMRC regulation changes; then again there have been some very good games around (for seriously dedicated pros), a few scams and a few empties. I think it's fair to say that a certain gentleman (we'll call him C.) and myself covered a fairly large geographical area in our (completely independent) ruthless exploitation of these possibilities.. I find the reaction consequential to these events, because I know what they were and how damaging they could be to machine intake; others find the reaction a consequence of the regulations, pub gentrification, and the general climate for gambling in increasingly varied forms. The truth is probably in between.

Interesting post,cp: I don't know where your 'patch' is (nor do I want to know,we're all entitled to our privacy on here.Also,it sounds like it might be a large patch!),but I'm surprised you haven't bumped into any fellow pros recently.I think I've seen 4 others this year.As you mention,'over-fishing' is definitely some of the problem especially if there's scams and emptiers.I am baffled why the companies allow them to last so long,as well as a game being hit by someone who's put in a lot of dedicated effort.They have all the data available,so I don't understand when it's obvious a game is taking a hit,they don't either fix the loophole or change the question bank.

cp999 · Post by **cp999** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 10:47 am

muddle wrote: I'm surprised you haven't bumped into any fellow pros recently.I think I've seen 4 others this year.As you mention,'over-fishing' is definitely some of the problem especially if there's scams and emptiers.I am baffled why the companies allow them to last so long,as well as a game being hit by someone who's put in a lot of dedicated effort.They have all the data available,so I don't understand when it's obvious a game is taking a hit,they don't either fix the loophole or change the question bank.

I've seen the odd "nibbler" - I don't consider someone who grovels the odd fiver out of 1 vs 100, wins the ten on MPD when it's easy, and pisses about with PMP to be a pro; historically such people have got nowhere with games such as YHW - to give one example of a game where there was proper money available at one time.

re companies: when games have extensive defence mechanisms, e.g. self-removal and £1 mode, it's probably not that much of a concern in the great scheme of things.

muddle · Post by **muddle** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 12:32 am

Ok,but isn't 'nibbling' a reasonable strategy nowadays? As you say games have extensive defensive mechanisms which means specialising in one or two games mightn't be that sensible.There's often only a small amount in the float - I have no problem with it ending up in my pocket through a few different games rather than just one.I certainly can't guarantee that I'll win every time on a couple of games that you mention,1 vs 100 and Million Pound Drop,but I wouldn't like to have to give back the nett profit I've made over the years.

tonkarentino · Post by **tonkarentino** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 8:47 am

muddle wrote:Ok,but isn't 'nibbling' a reasonable strategy nowadays? As you say games have extensive defensive mechanisms which means specialising in one or two games mightn't be that sensible.There's often only a small amount in the float - I have no problem with it ending up in my pocket through a few different games rather than just one.I certainly can't guarantee that I'll win every time on a couple of games that you mention,1 vs 100 and Million Pound Drop,but I wouldn't like to have to give back the nett profit I've made over the years.

Exactly. We can all look back fondly on days when each machine was emptiable but in the here and now I'll take £3 or £4 from three or four games. It's just a lowering of expectations...

cp999 · Post by **cp999** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 11:52 am

Yes, but "nibbling" is a fall-back position. It doesn't require much skill to get the tenner when 1 vs 100 is offering it, or to win happy hour on BTL. You're also not going to get rich quick on it either. I don't consider it to be genuine professional activity, due to the limited ability required.

I thought every Sceptre machine was emptiable