As someone who works in the industry and has written many, many machines, I can guarantee you that FOBTs are not fixed - no gaming machine is.
Were this to occur, the Gambling Commission would shut them down overnight. The laws are really strict and people being defrauded could mean prison spells for all involved.
If you feel you have been hard done by, contact the GC, and put to them in simple terms (ie do not let your emotion get involved) what happened. They can take it up with the company. You can also oppose the renewal of their premises licence next time it comes up.
May I also say, you should seek help for your gaming problems, as blowing £13k has clearly had a negative impact on you, and you sound like a pathological gambler. As a gaming professional, I rarely ever gamble these days. Please learn from those in the know. Look at http://www.gamcare.co.uk
As always - bet with you head, not over it. You will never win in the end.
Lad brokes refuse to pay me out & loss of inheritance on
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QuizMaster
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barafear799
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sorry to steal your thread, but I am steaming over an "incident" in Ladbrokes just now.
It's nowhere near the scale of what happened to the original poster - but I have been there many times with losing lots on fobts and roulette etc.
However, this short story about Ladbrokes should be fairly straightforward. I had no money on Saturday - so I did quite well on the FOBTs - I broke level. However, what I did have on me was my Odds On Reward card - a loyalty card for Ladbrokes shop customers (to compensate them for taking odds worse than on their internet site - check out their footy coupons as an example - and also to keep them "loyal") - anyway - its not a hugely exciting loyalty card, and over the last 3 years, I had earned enough points (mainly by them giving me bonus points to try to entice me into their shop!!!) to have a free £10 bet!!! Wooo!!!!
The other thing about these free bets is that they are "stake not returned" - cut a long story short:
I had £10 win on a horse, and it romped home at 12/1 - I didn't take the price, so I was on at SP - so £120 return as I do not get my "stake" back.
However, I had to rush off home - plus it kinda suited me not collecting it there and then as I would have spent it!!!
Fast forward to today - I went to collect at another branch of Ladbrokes - I stopped off before I went in to work at this office which opened at 9am. I was told I couldn't collect until the other shop opened (the original shop where I had the bet) - which was not til 1015am. I was rather confused by this - I thought all their bets were now on a central system - there was no more phoning shops like they did in the old days - so I was pretty pi**ed off that I had wasted 15 mins of my working day and not got anywhere -
So back I go at lunchtime - this time the manager who I saw this morning was not there - just a single cashier (who it later became clear had no idea about anything to do with betting etc) - she scans my coupon - and says "that's £100" - I stand there - and say "no it should be £120" - she says you don't get your stake back - I say it's nothing to do with the stake - I asked "has the system settled it as a 10/1 winner" (rather than 12/1) - she said she didn't know - it says £100 and that's what I will be paid. I'd double checked the result in the Sunday paper, 12/1 was the SP and there were no rule 4.
Anyway - she phones the manager on his mobile - he comes in (not best pleased - prob even less pleased when he saw it was me) - checks out the result on their text screens - sees its a 12/1 winner - agrees it should be £120 - and tells the cashier she needs to phone the orig shop to tell them they had settled it incorrectly (surely the system settles it??) - anyway - she does that - and comes back and says "it's £110" - I say "£120" - and she says "you need to take the £10 off" - I convince her it was £130 less £10 - she's confused - she tries to call back the shop - seemingly not getting through - I'd already stated I needed to be going - she said she couldn't give me my slip back - cut a long story short - she still didn't get thru to shop - I did take my slip back - and I now need to go out of my way again to collect a winning bet!!! What a complete farce!!!
It's nowhere near the scale of what happened to the original poster - but I have been there many times with losing lots on fobts and roulette etc.
However, this short story about Ladbrokes should be fairly straightforward. I had no money on Saturday - so I did quite well on the FOBTs - I broke level. However, what I did have on me was my Odds On Reward card - a loyalty card for Ladbrokes shop customers (to compensate them for taking odds worse than on their internet site - check out their footy coupons as an example - and also to keep them "loyal") - anyway - its not a hugely exciting loyalty card, and over the last 3 years, I had earned enough points (mainly by them giving me bonus points to try to entice me into their shop!!!) to have a free £10 bet!!! Wooo!!!!
The other thing about these free bets is that they are "stake not returned" - cut a long story short:
I had £10 win on a horse, and it romped home at 12/1 - I didn't take the price, so I was on at SP - so £120 return as I do not get my "stake" back.
However, I had to rush off home - plus it kinda suited me not collecting it there and then as I would have spent it!!!
Fast forward to today - I went to collect at another branch of Ladbrokes - I stopped off before I went in to work at this office which opened at 9am. I was told I couldn't collect until the other shop opened (the original shop where I had the bet) - which was not til 1015am. I was rather confused by this - I thought all their bets were now on a central system - there was no more phoning shops like they did in the old days - so I was pretty pi**ed off that I had wasted 15 mins of my working day and not got anywhere -
So back I go at lunchtime - this time the manager who I saw this morning was not there - just a single cashier (who it later became clear had no idea about anything to do with betting etc) - she scans my coupon - and says "that's £100" - I stand there - and say "no it should be £120" - she says you don't get your stake back - I say it's nothing to do with the stake - I asked "has the system settled it as a 10/1 winner" (rather than 12/1) - she said she didn't know - it says £100 and that's what I will be paid. I'd double checked the result in the Sunday paper, 12/1 was the SP and there were no rule 4.
Anyway - she phones the manager on his mobile - he comes in (not best pleased - prob even less pleased when he saw it was me) - checks out the result on their text screens - sees its a 12/1 winner - agrees it should be £120 - and tells the cashier she needs to phone the orig shop to tell them they had settled it incorrectly (surely the system settles it??) - anyway - she does that - and comes back and says "it's £110" - I say "£120" - and she says "you need to take the £10 off" - I convince her it was £130 less £10 - she's confused - she tries to call back the shop - seemingly not getting through - I'd already stated I needed to be going - she said she couldn't give me my slip back - cut a long story short - she still didn't get thru to shop - I did take my slip back - and I now need to go out of my way again to collect a winning bet!!! What a complete farce!!!
IBAS are a fucking laughing stock ...set up by the bookmakers for the bookmakers.edwardb wrote:You can contact IBAS, the industry's arbitration service, here:
http://www.ibas-uk.com
I used to work in a Ladbrokes myself for 2 years as a Deputy Manager. The info from the FOBTs are available on a screen behind the counter at all times the FOBTs are switched on, it takes a couple of clicks to find out how much a player has put in the machine, denominations, playing time etc and how much they've taken out. When the cashier scans the ticket, it comes up on their computer how much the punter has put in the machine and how much the payout is. There is definitely something going on as it takes less than 2 minutes to log a machine off, take the notes out, count them up, check them against the amount stated on the computer, transfer that money into to shop system and pay the winnings out.
I tended to find that paying out large amounts with an ounce of reasonable customer service, 7/10 times resulted in a nice tip from the customer, I've had between the odd £5er to a £100 tip from a £6200 FOBT win off £100 cash in.
They came down on me like a ton of bricks though when I robbed them of £28,000 in a 6 month spell which resulted in my dismissal, 2 years suspended sentence, 2 years probation and 300 hours community service
I'm not proud of what I did but I couldn't give a fuck about them as a firm, they made over £95million on the FOBTs that year, I got carried away and am one of the very few people to have one over on the bookies - they rob you blind 365 days a year - so I took my chance and robbed them and lived a top life-style for 6 months.
There is no way you will get any of your money back now through any means I'm afraid - if you want to piss the staff off without getting into too much trouble, go in each morning and pinch some of the magnets that hold the betting papers up without being seen, then walk out and throw them in the nearest bin. If you've got a dog, take it in the shop and find a blind spot from the cameras and let it do its business and walk out, make a presentable poster on your computer advertising free a £10 bet to the first 50 people in shop on a saturday morning and clip it onto the 'A' frame outside the shop you'll soon have them blowing their tops. It's not your money back but at least you'll have a bit of satisfaction watching them squirm.
I tended to find that paying out large amounts with an ounce of reasonable customer service, 7/10 times resulted in a nice tip from the customer, I've had between the odd £5er to a £100 tip from a £6200 FOBT win off £100 cash in.
They came down on me like a ton of bricks though when I robbed them of £28,000 in a 6 month spell which resulted in my dismissal, 2 years suspended sentence, 2 years probation and 300 hours community service
I'm not proud of what I did but I couldn't give a fuck about them as a firm, they made over £95million on the FOBTs that year, I got carried away and am one of the very few people to have one over on the bookies - they rob you blind 365 days a year - so I took my chance and robbed them and lived a top life-style for 6 months.
There is no way you will get any of your money back now through any means I'm afraid - if you want to piss the staff off without getting into too much trouble, go in each morning and pinch some of the magnets that hold the betting papers up without being seen, then walk out and throw them in the nearest bin. If you've got a dog, take it in the shop and find a blind spot from the cameras and let it do its business and walk out, make a presentable poster on your computer advertising free a £10 bet to the first 50 people in shop on a saturday morning and clip it onto the 'A' frame outside the shop you'll soon have them blowing their tops. It's not your money back but at least you'll have a bit of satisfaction watching them squirm.
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2 down for the melons
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I know of a cashier who was pocketing the stake of the bets, the ones that in theory were void because they were put on late - often by a few seconds.shawstoke wrote:I'm not going into it but it involved manual payouts, I'm saying no more on the matter though.keno wrote:What were you doing to obtain £28k?
Instead of telling the customer that they couldn't accept it and they would have to have there money back, just gave to an associate to cash them in for them.
Majority were dog bets.
Lad i know here got sacked from Coral for loading himself money onto FOBTs. Was fine when he won - he could replace the money he put on, and pocket the profit. When he lost though....and again, and again....they found out and he was hung out to dry.
"Sixty percent of the time, it works, every time!"
Easily done within reason, if you take the bet after the off and the selection wins, when the ticket is scanned it says 'void' but with a couple of clicks and a note in the box, it can be altered by a manager/DM/opening cashier to pay the correct winnings if it was a genuine customer mistake. Their system has so many floors its untrue and I'd go as far to say that at least 20% of shop staff (especially managers) are fiddling in some way or another. I started off with the odd fiver then it went to ten, twenty, fifty upto £1200 on one day before I had a weeks holiday booked, I knew I would eventually be caught so I took what I could. End of. It's done now.keno wrote:I know of a cashier who was pocketing the stake of the bets, the ones that in theory were void because they were put on late - often by a few seconds.shawstoke wrote:I'm not going into it but it involved manual payouts, I'm saying no more on the matter though.keno wrote:What were you doing to obtain £28k?
Instead of telling the customer that they couldn't accept it and they would have to have there money back, just gave to an associate to cash them in for them.
Majority were dog bets.
