In The News Chancellor to Hammer High St. Adult Gaming Centres?

[dunover]

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As predictably Labour strive to balance the books to pay for their vote-buying profligacy while the nation remains virtually undefended, it has been suggested those High St. 'Entertainment' Centres operated by Rank and Merkur etc. may be hammered with a 100% tax rise. Presently they pay 20% and 40% has been mooted, which will make the scamming low-RTP crap even more unplayable and players more desperate with greater cost to them.

(Read the above BBC News article section 2)

So go to @ChopleyIOM 's thread where he gets twatted for £300? in 30 minutes on 92% B3's which triggers his quitting slots. There was a small possibility that on another day he may have won, if this tax goes ahead and is inevitably funded by lower RTP, losing becomes practically a certainty, for every player on every occasion.

It won't affect the IoM where international money laundering and tax avoidance/evasion basically funds the place, but in the UK it would devastate the games. Also note the siting of these legalised scamming shops, prosperous areas have one or none, the pov areas have 5-10 or even more. We have 2 here in a town of 100,000 people as not quite as prosperous as those places in Surrey quoted, but I think even that's too many.

 

[SYPlayer95]

Wouldnt lose any sleep if they all got shut down, they are scum on the high street, I do, however, make money from these places, so every cloud and all that.

 

[Mr Shine]

Wouldnt lose any sleep if they all got shut down, they are scum on the high street, I do, however, make money from these places, so every cloud and all that.

Same here. For me personally, the one in town is a net earner, due to silly cash match offers. However there's no way that their remain can be a net benefit, too many people just losing all their money.

 

[SYPlayer95]

Same here. For me personally, the one in town is a net earner, due to silly cash match offers. However there's no way that their remain can be a net benefit, too many people just losing all their money.

100% mate. Even on their shitty RTPs it's money in our pockets. So for those who just straight up gamble in there, God help them.

 

[geordiecolin]

They fleece the vulnerable and deserve to be banished from the highstreet. They should ban them from bingo halls and pubs while they are at it. Bravo I say

 

[Mr Shine]

I go in there, get my cash match, spend the minimum I need to on the highest RTP I can find and scarper.

You can't use cash matches on roulette but over time I've checked out a few machines for my own curiosity. Most machines offer double-zero roulette and some of them have a triple-zero variant. However at least in the arcade I use a small number of machines have single-zero. (97% RTP confirmed in help file)

Almost everybody I see are playing the double-zero or triple-zero variants. I've virtually never seen anybody seek out the single-zero to play. So even in their urge to gamble, the punters are willingly shoving their money into an unnecessarily unfair game and the arcades are cleaning up.

 

[Jono777]

Jogs an old memory

Few years back we were on "awesome" terms with one of the managers in a local Admiral in Wolverhampton city centre (It's a nail bar now lol)

Used to get cash matches most Fridays £10 for £10, based on a text to your mobile number.

He allowed me and mate to register twice so all in all 2 phone No.s each one spare sim or as some may call it a "burner phone" and also our regular numbers / day to day mobiles

We'd put £20 each in and she'd put the £40 match in.

One old Rainbow Riches terminal ran on older software so didn't have the built in 1x wager thingy.

Literally did not even press spin, waited for no one to be about, took the £80 out, give the manager a £10 and split the £70

Far from a huge money maker but a completely risk free £15 for a 1/2 hour trip to town

Sat here thinking as I type just how many others she may have done this for to make her "weekend money" lol

Don't think I've touched a FOBT since this advantage came to an end and wouldn't miss them if they disappeared off the face of the earth.

 

[Webzcas]

Also note the siting of these legalised scamming shops, prosperous areas have one or none, the pov areas have 5-10 or even more. We have 2 here in a town of 100,000 people as not quite as prosperous as those places in Surrey quoted, but I think even that's too many.

Yeah we have a Merkur establishment on the high street in our town. It fits in with the Nails Bars, Turkish Barbers, Charity Shops, Bookies and Vape / Mobile Phone Repair shops!

 

[Webzcas]

They fleece the vulnerable and deserve to be banished from the highstreet. They should ban them from bingo halls and pubs while they are at it. Bravo I say

Add the ones located in Motorway Service Stations dotted around up and down the country to this list also!

 

[slot_zombie]

The games are borderline unplayable already, with several now being wheeled out on 90/91% (max stake) recently, especially in the new L&W Kascada terminals. You'd think they might have to eat the tax losses to avoid players quitting, but I have no doubt that RTP will drop. Again.

 

[andysbetting1187]

The games are borderline unplayable already, with several now being wheeled out on 90/91% (max stake) recently, especially in the new L&W Kascada terminals. You'd think they might have to eat the tax losses to avoid players quitting, but I have no doubt that RTP will drop. Again.

100% they have been nerfed recently - I only play them every now and again but noticed big differences in the way star turns/kings honor are playing.

 

[slot_zombie]

Industry mouthpiece Coinslot is now tipping a 5% MGD increase to 25%... which they are still bleating about.

 

[slot_zombie]

100% they have been nerfed recently - I only play them every now and again but noticed big differences in the way star turns/kings honor are playing.

Too right, it wasn't so long ago that if you played on £2 stakes you could expect 94% RTP.

 

[dunover]

Look, these B3 £500 games were a vile proposition at 88-92% to begin with. The reason they are generally unplayable is the RNG values are that which tend to produce a win around every 4 spins, this win will seldom be over 5x in the base game virtually guaranteeing your 10x £2 or 20x £1 spins from that purpleback you just slid into the slot will leave you with less than £8 after playing through.

Repeat this for 3-4 purplebacks hoping for a rare feature trigger. The huge majority of these crappy features will pay 16-50 quid, so by then you are still behind but only slightly IF you trigger one - a bit of damage limitation. If you continue to play, repeat the above but soon enough you'll be in a position where you need to the max 500 quid to make a slight profit or get your money back. Then the feeding of the note acceptor frenzy starts and you've all seen the YT horror videos where 'big' players spend 1-2 grand and fail to land the 500. Awful.

If you watch those @ChopleyIOM B3 sessions, you can see the above in painful action. It's galling to watch, knowing right from the first 20 quid how it's going to pan out. Infrequent 3OAK wins usually or low-royals. Almost instantly in a position where only a feature will help. This is exactly how the pernicious maths of those Blueprint games works, as with other ones on offer. The variance and win range/frequency is calculated to be extremely prejudicial to the players. You'll never see these empty!

Unlike online slots, there's little or no chance of retrieving the situation once 100x behind. These games have been honed and perfected by their software designers to disguise financial assault with colours and characters and visuals. They are far more evil, or just as evil depending on your experiences and viewpoints, as AWPs ever were.

So yeah, no loss to the nation if every fucking one of these places shut down. Along with Turkish 'barbers', Vietnamese 'Nail Bars', Kurdish 'vape shops', mobile phone 'accessory' shops and American-style sweet shops. Only these 'entertainment' centres at least have staff employed according to the laws of the land who along with the business actually pay taxes on some of the money laundered through them.

 

[Webzcas]

Unlike online slots, there's little or no chance of retrieving the situation once 100x behind. These games have been honed and perfected by their software designers to disguise financial assault with colours and characters and visuals. They are far more evil, or just as evil depending on your experiences and viewpoints, as AWPs ever were.

Yep, they are no better than fixed odds betting terminals you find in bookies. At least the UKGC have now limited severely the maximum bet size on these.

All akin to being the 'crack cocaine' of the high street.

I am lucky as I live near Bath, so if want a nice shopping experience I go there. However, the town I live in, the high street is like numerous others up and down the country. Full of nail bars, vape shops, charity shops and bookies aplenty.

 

[k6kaysix]

Yep, they are no better than fixed odds betting terminals you find in bookies. At least the UKGC have now limited severely the maximum bet size on these.

The £500 machines in the bookies these days are now the EXACT SAME terminals as those found in the adult gaming centres with perhaps just a few very minor differences on the game selections (Don't panic you can still play your £2 spin bar roulette in the AGCs!)

I'm fairly sure these days the software is essentially like a Netflix subscription model for arcades they buy/lease/whatever the hardware then pay Light And Wonder / Inspired / Blueprint a subscription to access their software and I don't even think the local arcade operator can easily adjust the RTP set by the manufacturers at head office! (obviously I would presume the likes of Admiral and Merkur do have some input and clout, and Mecca Bingo loves a 91%!)

So it isn't like the old days where an arcade would buy a machine load some game files on it then could keep it running forever and tinker with bits you stop paying the game studios you have a nice Equinox paperweight on your hands! (a bit like the terrible dongles idea from the fruit machines back in the day)

All very depressing really as these millions of arcades are all the exact same apart from a tiny minority - few Bar X perhaps shoved in the corner then just cram in as many of these digital machines as possible which due to the subscription model all run the exact same game menus (the only slight variation is some sites are designated 'test' so get the newer releases a bit earlier than nationwide)

Not often I feel sorry for the bookies but they're still only allowed 4 £500 machines a shop, many now have to do customer interaction (KYC/safer gambling), shut their doors at 10pm yet the Admiral a few doors down have 40 £500 machines, just about know their customers cup of tea milk and sugar preference and only have to fully shut their doors on Christmas Day - madness!

 

[slot_zombie]

The new machine technical standards from 2028 have compulsory staff alerts and staff interaction is required when spend reaches certain thresholds. For arcades as well as bookies.

Most B3s in my local have started asking ARE YOU SELF EXCLUDED (YES/NO) when you start interacting with them, before you can play. Imagine pressing the wrong answer...

 

[Webzcas]

Not often I feel sorry for the bookies but they're still only allowed 4 £500 machines a shop

Hence why in many towns you see two or more branches of the same bookies, sometimes a mere 2 minute walk apart, as is the case with William Hill in the town I live in.

 

[dunover]

Industry mouthpiece Coinslot is now tipping a 5% MGD increase to 25%... which they are still bleating about.

Well, bleat they will because that's what they got.

 

[andysbetting1187]

The new machine technical standards from 2028 have compulsory staff alerts and staff interaction is required when spend reaches certain thresholds. For arcades as well as bookies.

Most B3s in my local have started asking ARE YOU SELF EXCLUDED (YES/NO) when you start interacting with them, before you can play. Imagine pressing the wrong answer...

I've pressed it by accident. Terminal lockdown, staff member overrode it without asking if I was self.excluded

 

[Jono777]

Don't play these anymore but just wondering, especially given the nanny state of today....

Do you think eventually shop based players will have to register in some form and use a card or PIN to log in with the staff or terminal before they can play

Not an expert in these things but can see this happening in the not too distant future and then they can keep an eye on exactly what you're doing

 

[andysbetting1187]

Don't play these anymore but just wondering, especially given the nanny state of today....

Do you think eventually shop based players will have to register in some form and use a card or PIN to log in with the staff or terminal before they can play

Not an expert in these things but can see this happening in the not too distant future and then they can keep an eye on exactly what you're doing

I'm surprised it's not in already - casinos already require either a membership, or you can play as a guest but can only wager X amount before they cut you off

I played in Bristol today - can't remember the name of the arcade but it was brutal (next to galleria shopping centre) - £100 in kings honor, went in about 2 mins, no wins above a £5.

On to starturns, £100 on red bags - didn't hit once

£100 in the new zombie game, managed to get 40 free spins which paid £450.

Took the money and left, was in there about 15 mins total