I fail to see what this article "proves".

Yes, fruit machines are fixed. Of course they are, it says so on the front of them!

The average return, over a long term, is 70% This is not, however the return on any particular spin of the reels or gamble, it is the return on if you play, say £100, on average, at the end of it, you will end up with £70.

What this means in actuality is that the machine can go for a long time without paying out then pay out a large amount in one go.

In fact this is exactly what a friend of mine who plays these machines a lot counts on. He visits the arcades or pubs and watches for people who play the machines without any real idea of what they're doing.

When they've finished sticking in their money and losing most of it, he wanders over with a pocket full of pound coins and, generally within a few minutes, he wanders away again with several pockets full of pound coins!

Mostly this is because he's taken time to learn the "tricks", eg some have "skill shot" features where, if you hold down the "cancel hold" button, the skill shot slows right down. On others if it gives three Holds in a row and you don't hold anything it puts in a win.

So the poor sap who has stuck in all his money and lost it got a 0% return, my friend gets a 140% return, but the *average* return is still 70%

Personally I can't be bothered and just keep my money in my pocket for a 100% guaranteed return!!

"At the moment, it is perfectly legal to operate a fruit machine which pays out just 5% or even 0% of its takings. The 70% minimum at which most machines currently operate is purely voluntary and not enforceable by law. We want a legal minimum to be set and enforced. This would also require setting a specific period over which the percentage had to be attained, since the current indefinite period makes any percentage figure meaningless"

Quote source

"But what about "Skill" features?

There are two kinds of features which fruit machines will flag as "Skill". The more common one is not skill-based at all, it merely creates an impression of being so by, for example, lighting a moving trail sequentially rather than randomly. However, when the player finally presses the button to stop the feature, the machine will not necessarily select the light that was lit at that point. Frequently it will "jump" to a different one entirely. You can see this behaviour for yourself by slowing the machine down using the emulator's "Delay" function.

As players came to realise that "Skill" features were misleadingly named, manufacturers instituted the "True Skill" feature. According to the BACTA guidelines, features described as "True Skill" must actually be functions of player skill. (Though bear in mind that these are only guidelines and are not legally enforceable.) However, the machine gets round this by only offering "True Skill" in a limited manner. For example, if a win ladder has 12 positions, the machine may only offer "True Skill" gambles on the first eight positions. After that it will cease to say "True Skill" on its display, and normal (cheating) behaviour will be resumed. "

Have you thought your friend may have a gambling addiction?

If so get him to seek help.

Its actually now 80% and the amount its taken from is £1000
So in fact for every £1000 entered into the machine, the machine legally has to pay out £800.

However, If the machine is full, you will receive a lot more than 80%. Especially if the machine has just been delivered.

Not so.

All fruit machines have a 'logic chip' which assumes the way you will play, for example if you have 2 symbols in a row, with the third one in the next row up, it will often offer you a 'nudge'. It will assume you will use this nudge to bring the final symbol down. This is being processed by the 'logic chip'. But if you were to act 'illogically', the process is upset.

I don't wish to encourage anyone to gamble so I won't go in to any more detail other than my method relied on constantly confusing the logic chip, which paid great dividends :)

No, I just have enough experience with emulators to know they are not always accurate.

While I agree that the companies should be forced to define how they derive the 70% payout figure, and that all companies should be forced to stick to the same method for deriving this figure, and that maybe a legal minimum payout should be set, bear in mind that if a fruit machine payout is too low, people will not go back to it.

Got to agree there, when we get new bandits in the local, and if they are deemed to be " crap " they don't get played. The company suppling them has a computer link up so they can see if it's being played " earning " its floor space ( as they actually rent that spot that it's standing on ) if it's not then they will swap it for another, so we as the players do have a bit of say :p

Albeit very small,

A mate of mine plays them for a living, he's banned form every arcade in Nottingham, he reckons you can easily win about £1,500 per week, he must be right because he's got a brand new Impreza and does no other work.

You have to trick the machine into paying out.

When I do that I can get the eastenders machine to work but there is no display on the third reel. I have tried the other machines from that site and there is a problem with the Arcadia machine (no .gam file).

I get the same so we both obiously doing something wrong Could some body email me one they have got working !!!

Or provide a link to one that they know works

After reading about it it seems that they all use diferent emulaters and the prob is working out which one goes with which

got it to work it was my old cr***y machine