To think that it's wrong to put gambling/ fruit machines in the motorway services?

[Vagabond]

I just think about all the families who are safely on their holidays and then they stop at the services. Then either the mother or father enters into the gambling den once again.....it rarely ends well.
How many arguments do you think start or end this holiday? Britain has gone mad with gambling and it's just wrong!

Our chippie used to have a fruit machine.

I guess you don't know an addictive gambler the way I do.

You're making little sense, pubs are often targeted at families, with their play areas and gardens what about the alcoholics or the fruit machines in their. Cigarettes are sold in supermarkets which are full of families or sweet shops full of children. What's the difference.

I never realised services were places to 'go'.

Well for one thing Sirzy it encourages some people to play the machines when they notice them, who wouldn't otherwise have gambled that day, and it makes gambling appear a normal and harmless part of life to see these machines in everyday environments. And how many DCs want to know what the machines are and find the flashing lights and game-like sounds quite appealing? It's not an over-reaction to want to reduce gambling from the grass-roots upwards. I don't like to see gambling as part of "everyday life" as if it were some innocuous pastime.

Where would you draw the line with the national lottery?

Especially in terms of all our gold medals due to increased funding for athletes. Thanks to the lottery.

Well instead of looking for people to blame look to get them help instead.

Lots of people play fruit machines who aren't addicts. Whilst addiction is a nasty affliction, it is the addicts issue. He world shouldn't change for them, they need to learn to function in the world like the majority.

Vagabond, if you knew an alcoholic, would you be asking that all pubs be closed down?

The problem lies with the person you know, not the fact that many public places have fruit machines.

I disagree with the lottery too. I'd rather my charity donations went to charity rather than some random person's prize money.

It's not a new idea to discourage pubs. The tea-room owners of the 1830s made more tea-houses to provide an alternative to pubs

Yes you are being unreasonable. Playing the fruit machines is legal, regardless of if they are in a place where a lot of families go. Lots of families go to, for example, Brighton pier - it is full of fruit machines. Removing them from from service stations wouldn't mean families won't be exposed to them. And it's supposedly a free country, people are actually allowed to gamble, smoke, eat junk food, watch violent movies and millions of other things that may be bad for them and their families.

Yeah bring back the coffee houses.

They're called 'services', but they're actually 'businesses'. Obviously they're going to be separating you from as much cash as possible, in return for shite, in order to cover their rent.

I dislike the slotties myself, but if you're putting them into the context of a nasty junk food franchise or three & a shop selling beanie babes, it's hardly as if they're despoiling some fabulously innocent family paradise.

The answer's simple. Only stop at services for toilet breaks. Frogmarch offspring to toilets, encouraging them to McShit where available. Frogmarch out again. Do not allow them anywhere near food outlets or tat shops. Feed them contents of home fridge emptied into a coolbag once back in the vehicle.

Oh YAsoooooNBU...

But while you're at it... they sell cigarettes which encourage people to smoke which is bad. And they sell pie which makes people fat and OMFG they sell petrol which is so, so bad for the environment when we all should be cycling instead of driving cars...

None of us are capable of making our own decisions so lets just ban service stations cos they're nasty and they smell of wee...

I know a man who travels from service station to service station to 'empty' the fruit machines (there's a knack to it apparently).

The 'knack' consists of staking the buggers out - that's it. They are obliged to pay out a certain % of the take, & they do so fairly predictably.

If you watch it for a few hours, you can spot when it's about to drop a decent payoff.

It's why lots of pubs ban their staff from playing on them. Back in my licensee days, I had a barman who worked the day shifts who used to nip out from behind the bar & rinse the machines a couple of times a shift. It paid him better than I did!

I can understand where you're coming from because I do know an ex-problem gambler very well (married to him actually) so I completely understand the anger and frustration about it all because I have walked down the high street swearing under my breath at the amount of bookies on every street! But you're going to come across fruit machines and whatever everywhere you go. Same as an alcoholic will come across alcohol in their lifetime, it's unavoidable. It's down to the gambler to overcome their own issues (it is possible.) If they want to gamble, they'll find a way. The Internet for example... good luck banning the Internet.

If someone wants to gamble on a particular day, they will find somewhere... Be that at a service station, a pub or a casino... Exactly the same way an alcoholic will find somewhere to buy drink and a smoker will find cigarettes!
I don't see the need to get rid of the fruit machines for those addicted gamblers, because what about those people who are able to just play a few pounds on a fruit machine and walk away? How is it fair to those non-addicted users?