FOBTS

[Stepandstop]

JUST BEEN IN LADBROKES TODAY TO PUT MY FOOTBALL BET ON THE ASSISTANT TOLD ME TRADE IS DEAD DUE TO FOBT STAKES GOING TO £2 EVEN DOING FREE COMPETITIONS ON FOBTS TO WIN £20 FREE PLAY NOW 

QUESTION IS WILL BRANCHES CLOSE DOWN ?

 

[Mentholdan]

The coffin is being nailed, screwed,  chained and padlocked. 

[The crisp man]

Definitely some, but some branches had opened to by pass the 4 fobt in shop rule. Look at towns like huddersfield where you have several of the same bookies a stones throw away.  It's down to an over reliance on the fobt profit margin

[Ziggyzak]

Ive spoken to some insiders at corals and hills who told me takings are down nationally over 40% on FOBTs. Many shops have also noticed a significant decrease in takings and amount of people playing them. The big roulette hitters can no longer play £50+ spins which is why the industry are trying to switch people onto the slots but it doesn’t appear to be working as the pre-gambles which they admit have been placed onto the games to get round the new regulations in an attempt to replicate the old fortune spins, are not popular with the customers, as Darren has showed in some of his videos it can take over £50+ just to get a ‘fortune spin’ with no guarantee of even getting a win?

They’ve said there are no planned shop closures yet as they are going to monitor the situation for at least 6 months to see if things change once the players get used to the new £2 stakes. If overall turnover and profit falls below their initial expectations they will cull shops particularly in the bigger cities where there are several ‘duplicate’ shops from the same bookie in the same street or very close by as they were only opened due to the 4 machine limit per shop. As we all know there is no evening racing and the shops were only kept open til 10pm due to the machines, so with reduced takings and profits down many shops will probably adjust their opening hours.

The bookies golden goose has well and truly been cooked and they must be crying their eyes out....ha ha

[mjl5656]

Well what they should have done is upped the slots % to 96% for the first 3-6 months to get the interest going then slowly dropped it down 

 as usual they have down the reverse no one is interested to the fortune slots

and most fruits are now paying 91% max as well as William Hill and Bet Fred bringing in Compensaited slots 

They only have themselves to blame

 

 

[BlindHaze]

The bookies have been taking advantage of folks for too long. If people really did have a gambling budget rather than a problem, then it’d make no difference to them - people would just put more on their football or horse racing bet instead. They’ve always realised this, this is why they’re in great fear.

I have no problem with these places, they supply a service and people use it. But when their service is ‘crack cocaine’ and selling it indiscriminately.... then yeah, a massive clampdown is needed.

[LiamJ]

3 hours ago, BlindHaze said:

The bookies have been taking advantage of folks for too long. If people really did have a gambling budget rather than a problem, then it’d make no difference to them - people would just put more on their football or horse racing bet instead. They’ve always realised this, this is why they’re in great fear.

I have no problem with these places, they supply a service and people use it. But when their service is ‘crack cocaine’ and selling it indiscriminately.... then yeah, a massive clampdown is needed.

This is spot on to be fair. If they're in dire straits already or predicting it so early, it shows just how much they fucked many peoples lives up. As an ex bookie worker, I've spoken to people I used to work with and hours have already been cut - both staff and opening times in the shops. Obviously not an ounce of sympathy from this punter! If the high street bookie crash and burns, my smile will still be high and mighty 

[TheKingInTheNorth]

I played them for the first week or so since the switch and did really well on both slots and roulette, probably about a bag of sand up for 10 days.

then the roulette took £350 in 30 min without really giving a game other than watching the bar go red, red, red, red.....

The fortune spins can be nonsense as well Lost £150 on Drops of Gold without reply and had to wait for nearly £100 to get a shot on Luck o’ The Irish.

having said that I also played pots of Gold and won the jackpot inside £20 during the same period.

Thing is with both fortune spins and roulette I just found it both frustrating and boring so I’m pretty much done with them now.

Probably still play some £2 premium spins but that’s about it.

wont miss them, cost me a small fortune over the years on roulette mostly.

Happy that my watch has ended on the FOBT 🤣

[nostromo332]

where i live there are 3 betting shops opposite each other none are busy anyhow but who will win and who will bust ? coral --- will hill --- bet fred. 

[Skipper]

I no there is more people on coast in arcade slots but these have been £2 max bet all the time and there not worried. It just that bookies got too greedy with £100 every 3 seconds. Although you can still put £10,000 on a sporting event and buy bonus for £2000 on games. Makes no sense.

[Seaton-slots]

On my trip to the coast last weekend I noticed some games had mini games you could play and if you won on the mini one you get what looked like better odds in the main game. Had a few little spins on these and did really well but didn't really like it so gave up and went back to normal slots.

Having read this thread I think I will avoid them like the plague going forward.

I have never really used bookies so I am a but behind on this topic but is the general consensus reducing the stakes to £2 was a good move or a bad one?    

[BlindHaze]

On 4/15/2019 at 10:55 PM, LiamJ said:

This is spot on to be fair. If they're in dire straits already or predicting it so early, it shows just how much they fucked many peoples lives up. As an ex bookie worker, I've spoken to people I used to work with and hours have already been cut - both staff and opening times in the shops. Obviously not an ounce of sympathy from this punter! If the high street bookie crash and burns, my smile will still be high and mighty 

It’s also telling that the introduction of the FOBT coincided with the rise of pay day loan companies. Maybe I’m putting 2+2 together and making 5, but it’s a massive coincidence.

[TheKingInTheNorth]

1 hour ago, BlindHaze said:

It’s also telling that the introduction of the FOBT coincided with the rise of pay day loan companies. Maybe I’m putting 2+2 together and making 5, but it’s a massive coincidence.

No coincidence in my opinion, your 2+2 very much = 4

[nostromo332]

One local bookie I won,t name has said takings are down by £10k a week since the new fobt max stake came in.

so if we times 4 units x £500 a day x 5 days then you have your 10k min loss.

most people will now play or keep playing 20p slots.   

 

[TheKingInTheNorth]

19 hours ago, nostromo332 said:

One local bookie I won,t name has said takings are down by £10k a week since the new fobt max stake came in.

so if we times 4 units x £500 a day x 5 days then you have your 10k min loss.

most people will now play or keep playing 20p slots.   

 

My heart bleeds for them, honestly, it does 🤣