Fruit Machine Chat

warning , the following will be long , self indulgent and boring ,,,,,,,,,, you have been warned


ive been at this game a very very long time ,,,,, more than most on here ,,,,, even before a few members of this site were born

when i started 6quid up on the day was considered very impressive , ,,,,,,,,, now its considered a cheap board


i started out around 14 playing the video games and gradually moved on to the 2p fruits ,cutting my teeth on the likes of master spy , rat race, test pilot etc. at 16 i joined a yts getting paid 30quid a week on a friday , and walking home potless the same night was a semi regular occurrence lol,,,,, eventually i met the right players who taught me the ropes etc and made me realise that if treated right , this could make a decent living, and so graduated on to the pubs etc, , , it was hard going for a few years , just making a few quid each week to supliment my giro , it was the token years , paymaster , mhg , stretton , associated leisure , ,,,,, and you only had a few options with what to do with em , some pubs allowed you to buy drinks with them , others you had little choice but to put them back , and even back then on certain machines there was dodgy programming involved where it was quite possible to put 40quids worth of tokens in a machine for no board , but put real cash in and get a board straight away ,,,, wtf robbing bastards lol Anyhow that all changed with the arrival of £10 all cash machines , finally i found it possible to not only make a living but to be able to save money in the bank too

the last 15 or so years have been a roller coaster ride , ive met some true friends , and a multitude of different players from all over the uk ,,,,,,,, without mentioning names theres been the players who have lived for today and spent everything they've earnt , and then theres been the players who have saved religiously , now have literally hundreds of thousands in the bank or property , but have missed out on so many of lifes experiences , one such player never even started a relationship with a girlfriend till he was in his thirty's and was never interested in taking a holding anywhere anytime , he was all about the pursuit of money 7 days a week and now has two houses , fair play to him i suppose

ive personally tried to find a happy medium , ive been america 3times (once for a month lol) ,,,,, thailand , all over europe numerous times , took days off , had relationships , been married twice , bought every game console and new tech gadget and toy available , ive lost count of the tv's dvd's blue ray players etc that ive bought ,,,,,,,, ive never had to stick to a food budget like a lot of families do buying one chinese meal as a treat once a fortnight etc ,,,,, fuck that ,,,,,,,, lol ,,,,,,, and on top of all this have some savings too

regrets ? ,,,,,,,, well of course ,,,,,,,,, i regret not saving more , i regret never going to college to get some decent qualifications , i regret not maximising time spent on fruits ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, or do i ? ,,,,,,, you see i strongly believe that the last 15 years have provided opportunity to have earnt and saved probably as much as half a million quid , but that this could have only been achieved by an equal amount of regimented sacrifice from every other rich aspect from the tapestry of life ,,,,,,,,,, and all work n no play makes jack the dull boy n all.


so whats the point of all this then ? ,,,,,,,,, well i feel the fruit scene is now a very different place to be ,,,,,,,,,, im old , theres little sense of amusement anymore , im finding it harder and harder to trudge round pub after pub , the fire is at an all time high , players are becoming more and more territorial , all the new machines are pretty dross (but hey fair play to any of you on new stuff) ,,,,,,,,, old good earners like mists etc are slowly getting relegated to the shit hole estate pubs (more fire) , ,,,,,,,,,, ok some days are still 300 plus , but getting rare because im having to travel more and incur more expenses to fewer units with more heat ,,,,,,,,,, some days ive been out 16 hours to earn less than 20 quid or even have losses ,,,,,,,,,, , it seems to me also that the ''edge'' has been declining too , (im not talking about single units , of course you can make a quick ton on one machine still) ,,,,,,,,,, im talking the overall edge of the odds in the pro's favour of a week in week profit outcome ,,,,,,,,,,,,, i dont know , maybe its just me but i think the 90% chance of coming home up , has dropped dramatically to around 60% ,,,,,,,,,,,, in short lately it feels more like gambling than pro playing .

overall , the above , plus my general lack of enthusiasm etc has eventually wore me down ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

ive simply had enough ,,,,,,,,,,, 20 odd years has taken its toll on me both physically and mentally ,,,,,,,,,, even if £100 jp's are around the corner , even if things were to dramatically improve financially with the arrival of new methods etc

ive still had enough


i want to do something else now ,,,,,,,,,,,,as much as i dont relish the thought of working for somebody else (its a huge psychological hurdle ) , at least my outgoings are relatively small , i only need around 600 a month coming in to tick over nicely ,,,,,,,,, and so a part time job would suit my needs as main source of ( guaranteed ) income ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and maybe 2 days amonth playing fruits would be far more enjoyable , just to keep my hand in , in fact maybe just a couple of times a month would be relish'd with more vigour and enthusiasm ? hmmm



on top of all this i may be getting banned from driving in a few weeks anyhow (not that it mattered too much , i had a dole boy on stand by) ,,,,,,,, but i deserve it , as far as driving goes ,,,,,, im simply a cock .


anyhow a job may be very difficult to get , but we have savings and a little income from tracys buying and selling lark ,

or if we started to dig into savings a little too uncomfortably , we always have the option to move in my parents large house etc and cut outgoings by 70%


i'll still have my contacts , i'll still have the odd day out with martin george etc ,,,,,,,,,,,,, and i'll still come on here for the banter (what would life be without a one liner insult from kesh now n again ? LOL)


but as for full time playing ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, thats it


cheers , lee.


ps , being in hospital lately , and seeing my family all there to support me , has also made me realise that i dont see enough of them , that theres more to life than money , and that my decision to quit full time will allow me to make amends

Good luck Lee , hope it works out for you. Maybe even take a year off or something. Might do you good. I'm not one to tell anyone how to live there life , but maybe start eating healthier and do some exercise. Maybe join a gym or something.

Good luck mate hope all is well and you are successful in any path you choose to take in life.

I was going to go into serious detail here and post a searingly honest yet highly amusing account of my 'career', but I spent time posting yesterday only for JG to delete it because some of what I posted sailed a bit close to the wind.

So I will keep it brief.

Much of your post reads as though you are trying to justify the last 20 years of your life. No need Lee, we all make our choices and shouldn't feel the need to explain them. Personally I have abused my earning potential over the last 20 years by being lazy, and succumbing to various temptations along the way. I am 34 now, still don't know what direction my life will take, but it most certainly feels good to out of the game.

The easy money has flowed from the late 80's til now and will probably keep flowing for a while yet, but if we had been given our time on earth at any other point that money would not have been there. That is why we have been exceptionally lucky, I pity 'players' who are just getting into the game. Walk round an arcade now and there is no buzz like when we were kids, all arcades have the same monotonous machines, casinos don't have easily readable high jackpot machines. Gambling seemed like a shady pursuit back then, but that was part of the attraction, nowadays gambling is a far more widely accepted past-time. Maybe we have grown immune to the excitement of it all, and teenagers do foam at the mouth at the prospect of playing a £5jp Party Time on 80%, who knows.

The burning question for me is if something fresh came out tomorrow would you be back out there? I know I would, how ever much I like to think I wouldn't be.



In all honesty i'm 34 and feel abolutely fucked in life with no motivation and a min wage job I feel lucky to have, so I can sort of imagine how you must be feeling.

Lee - you won't regret it. Wish you the very best mate - make sure you indulge yourself in something suitably distracting to keep your mind occupied and tell the nagging voice in the back of your head (no, not the missus) to f**k off if it tries to lead you astray.

We will indeed drink overpriced vodka and leer at fit barmaids again at some point in the not too distant future

Will you be auctioning off your locations?

Best of luck. Probably one of a few who appear decent enough.

Just a thought but use that passion for all things gadget and geek. you'll get far enjoyment than any fruity days takings.

I can understand your frustrations Lee re:machines at the moment, lots of heat, lots of players, old games dying out, no decent new games really... (or is there?).... I'm sure you'll keep at it now and again for the pocket money though!

Lee if you get a part time job for three days a week, £50 a day, that's £150 a week, there's your bare minimum. The other 4 days could be 2/3 with Tracey/family and 1/2 for slotting. There's always the apprenticeship route as well if you don't want to take a blind risk with starting up a business.

I'm part time as well at the minute. It suits me fine. Obviously people are still doing well full time, but these are the fruit entrepreneurs, the BGMs of this game who invest big time and money in new stuff and do massive leg work in the sticks and in the city centres.

After reading your post, OB said he warmed to you a lot more. OB doesn't warm to many things. He gave house 5/10 and dexter 4/10. He gave the Nudgeman story 6/10, but I caught him at a rare moment of humility. Breaking bad is 8/10 though.

Good luck with whatever you do lee. You have high levels of diplomacy and tact, so if you leave fruits altogether you should go into International Politics. You'll be the guy who starts peace talks between izbizziwazzistan freedom fighters and the kuwanuganga rebel forces.

OT 1) are we still ok for next week?
2) Oscar it was me, the real JG, who inadvertently deleted that dream factory thread. I deleted my old postings. All threads started by myself were automatically deleted as a result of this. Apologies for any inconvenience.
3) the end

anybody got a violin and some tissues

I hope everything works out well for you Lee. All the best mate. Have a great Christmas and I'm sure we will have a mad crazy punt lined up for the new year.


Rob

To summerise... another goes skint.

Theres only one flaw in getting a low pid job at the moment, that is over the next few years the wages are set to drop even further in real terms, win the NMW wage being at 6.19 and the living wage being 7.45(outside london)... the gap is only going to get wider and wider, comfortable income level is £16+an hour, the living wage is expected to go above £8 a hour next year. Rental costs are expect to be as much as 12% year on year increases if the housing shortage stays(that is they don't start buliding cheapo council dwellings).

If your a single male and can't compete then you pretty much fucked in this country.

Anyone who has a home paid for or brought years ago without taking out all the equity should be able to ride through the storm, if not things are set to get a lot grimmer.

Oscar wrote: Maybe we have grown immune to the excitement of it all, and teenagers do foam at the mouth at the prospect of playing a £5jp Party Time on 80%, who knows.

.

Ive often wondered that Rich!!! Back in our day a fiver would last you all day on the old classics but now??? Would that even get you a board on half the £5'ers out there. Imagine some poor fucker and his mates going in together on a £5 golden game thats just been done?!! Pocket money gone in minutes and still £50 from a board.

I totally agree with what youve said Lee, its shit out there now. I often sit depressed at home thinking why didnt I chose the other route? But we made our choice and we have to live with it. Ive had a free ride for numerous years now but at the end I've got fuck all to show for it, except a beer belly and probably a few years knocked off my life spending all my stuff on nothing but piss and the odd holiday (rent and living costs aside)

I'll defo be going back to work full time sooner or later. I already work part time for my dad so I'm not totally out of the 'working' loop.

Good luck, but I think you'll be back before you know it.

JG wrote: Oscar it was me, the real JG, who inadvertently deleted that dream factory thread. I deleted my old postings. All threads started by myself were automatically deleted as a result of this.

Shame, I thought it was an excellent read.

inadvertently?

Lol.

JG edit: Oscar you bloopin' bleepin' sod! You said it was and I quote 'fucking appalling thread this one'. Maybe part of me knew that the thread might get deleted if I removed all my back postings, I'll give you that. However I had made reference to Macheeeen-ooooooon-eeeeen--iiiine-yyyne--pyne---fog on the tyne--oooon eeeen sheeen X in the thread and the death threats, as per usual, started tumbling in.

Yes I did wonder where it had gone.