Cheers Mav. Just seeing one person understand my bullshit on here is good for my morale. I was talking to a guy at work last night. The dude is absolutely loaded. He was telling me that he’s starting to get addicted to the £1 a spin bandit where I work. He told me he can put up to £100 a night in there and he comes in between 3 and 5 nights a week. This guy might put a lot in, but he seems to do it at the right times because he always tends to be lucky. Sure enough, a bit later in the night, he was handing me a ticket for £500. Only cost him £7 to win it… Seriously!? With that kinda win, addicted or not, your definitely going back on it another time aren’t you!? That’s the problem. That first win. I’ve seen people who never even contemplate gambling get a little win on that machine and never looked back… Not to the extent of some idiots like me, but there’s definitely a trigger that goes off after you see that first win.
That trigger went off for me pretty early in life. I used to go to a lot of arcades in town when I was young. I live in a seaside town that is packed with them. Packed with arcades, but more importantly, un-policed arcades. So it was easy to gamble as a kid. The only obstacles at the time being other kids that wanted to either take your money OR help you win the jackpot… and then take your money. I shall take one example. I used to go to maybe 4 or 5 regular arcades that had specific machines that we had mastered. We being me and my friend, let’s call him Chris. Because that’s his name… or is it? Anyway, we’d walk into the first place with our money firmly stuffed in our socks. If it was quiet, time to play. If there were a few unsavoury types in, move to the next place. So we ended up in a place we didn’t often frequent and tried a few machines that were new to us. I was playing one machine with a kinda ‘Space and Rockets’ theme to it. I remember I got a win, got on the board and won £10. £10 was a pretty reasonable win at the time so I was happy. Only ‘problem’ was, I got the repeat option. I swear, every time the repeat option came up, the lights were flashing brighter than any other machine and the sound effects louder. It seemed to go on for an eternity. Every time I tried for a repeat I got it. I remember clearly thinking, I wish this would end so we could get out of there. With every repeat I could feel more eyes on me. My friend being my look out just in case. Like I said, it must of lasted a life time, but in the end the repeat finally stopped and I ended up with just over £100 I believe. After a nervous (what seemed like) 16 hours! of coins hitting the tray as I waited for my winnings to present themselves, I scooped them up into my pockets and we legged it out of there.
That’s the kind of thing that happened regular when I was a kid. I loved the thrill of going out and playing, not necessarily winning, just being there and getting a buzz. I guess I should of known when to stop. When the buzz stopped. When it became a chore instead of a pleasure. But we live and learn.
“you can’t truly appreciate the top if you haven’t hit rock bottom”.
