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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to rely on roulette as income

128 replies

Glucose95 · 03/05/2024 04:15

NC’d as I post my 4am thoughts…

Recently, I have become a rather frequent player of roulette.

i have tried various different approaches, and have found that on four occasions lately I have won over £50 in profit from these FOBTs through one particular strategy.

I put a small initial amount in the machine, maybe £10, and then bet perhaps £3 on red or black. The maximum stake is £2 so if I place £3 on red or black then the spin bar (red or green) will offer a 66.6% chance of activating the roulette feature. More often than not, I have been successful in placing a winning bet on red or black which increases my credit to £16 or £18.

I then consider the £6 to £8 “profit” I have made as “free bets” where I can take riskier bets without worrying about losing the original £10 “capital” I staked.

My strategy has always been to place between £1 and £2 on 0 or 00.

I feel that these machines will more frequently return 0 or 00 as it is these that give the “house edge” to the bookmakers.

I have played this strategy five times in the last two weeks on roulette FOBT’s in various different bookmakers and service stations (when I have been out and about) and on four of the five occasions I have been successful and placed a winning £72 bet on 0/00.

On average, I have only put £30 into the machine before I achieve this payout, resulting in a £40 profit each time.

I did lose £25 yesterday in Ladbrokes (I never seem to have much luck on their machines), but overall my strategy has paid off and I would say that I am in profit generally.

Has anyone else been successful on these machines (the ones in the bookmakers) using a similar strategy? Can you share your tips?

I feel that my strategy pays off more often than not, and having staked a few hundred pounds on these machines in the last few months I think I am in profit still, which is a good achievement.

Does my strategy/playing approach make sense?

I feel that 0/00 are more likely to come up on these machines as it is these numbers that give the house its advantage For instance, if 0 or 00 come up, all bets on red or black/odd or even automatically lose, so the bookmakers are more incentivised to have 0/00 come up more often on these machines?

AIBU to continue playing these machines frequently and consider roulette as part of my income?

i feel that if my strategy continues to work I will be able to use roulette as a way to increase my income by about £100 per week.

I am quite a conservative player and can quit when I realise when my strategy is not working. For example, yesterday, I left the bookmakers when I lost £25. I had another £50 in my purse that I could have kept putting into the machine but I realised that it wasn’t my day and walked away. Last month I lost £100 after I emptied my purse, but this was before I worked out how these machines worked and developed my 0/00 strategy.

Since then, I have won my £100 back and slightly more through my 0/00 strategy. I would say that despite my £25 loss yesterday, I am still marginally up through the previous wins I have had.

Does anyone else who plays these roulette machines feel that 0/00 will come up more likely, and have you had success in betting this way on roulette?

OP posts:
RocketPanda · 03/05/2024 04:21

I think you are heading down a slippery slope with your gambling.

Mumoftwo1312 · 03/05/2024 04:28

I love the casino as much as anyone, but...

When the fun stops, stop.

You have become the protagonist in my favourite Graham Greene novella, Loser Takes All. Have a read of it - it's about a man who finds a winning scheme/formula as you have, but it turns into a Job and he becomes a total bore, just like a City worker banging on about share prices, and he almost loses his wife.

It's got a happy ending though. He quits and keeps his wife

EliflurtleAndTheInfiniteMadness · 03/05/2024 04:28

RocketPanda · 03/05/2024 04:21

I think you are heading down a slippery slope with your gambling.

This. There's a lot of I thinks and I feels in your post. You dont even know for sure if you've made a profit. Your behaviour sounds really problematic. Id be stepping away before you lose way more then you can afford.

Idontgiveagriffindamn · 03/05/2024 04:33

All gamblers have a strategy that they think will work. It’s never does.
You haven’t hit upon the winning strategy you’ve just been lucky.
But if you reread your post you think you’re still marginally up - think? You don’t know. That’s not a winning strategy. That’s a gambler speaking

Mumoftwo1312 · 03/05/2024 04:41

One more thing about the fun/income thing - you say you are "marginally up" after all these investments (I use this word with tongue in cheek), so I'm interpreting that as something in the low double digits, hardly 100 a week.

After how many hours? What is your hourly return, even IF you could guarantee a profit each week? It'll be well under minimum wage. And that's time you're holed up in Ladbrokes for hours every week, hunched over a machine, away from friends and family, sometimes with no profit to show for it.

Once you see gambling as a job rather than fun, you'll realise what a shitty job it is. If you get a few hours of actual work like say cleaning cars or whatever, you can earn 50 quid in a morning and that's guaranteed every week and then you've got the rest of the weekend with your loved ones and you've burned some calories.

I get it, op. I love a bet myself, probably a bit too much. Step away because you're not doing it for fun any more

Queenfierce · 03/05/2024 04:47

Quit this now I once used to play these alot and found myself spending £50 a week i couldn't afford I just stopped in the end cause I could see how ridiculous I was being

CountingCrones · 03/05/2024 04:48

The house always wins

AGodawfulsmallaffair · 03/05/2024 05:20

You sound addicted to gambling. Stop now.

PineappleTime · 03/05/2024 05:24

You "think" you are "marginally" in profit from playing gambling machines over several months. Give your head a wobble. If it were possible to win on these machines they wouldn't exist. They are designed to make money for the owners of the machine. By all means enjoy gambling small amounts as a hobby but if you break even you're winning.

commonsense12 · 03/05/2024 05:38

Do not rely on gambling winnings as income.

Canonlythinkofthisone · 03/05/2024 05:45

Machines are literally designed to pay or not based on previous pay outs, money held and a whole other host of data they hold internally.
You've been "lucky" and might have made a marginal profit? Walk away.

ineedtostopbeingdramaticfirst · 03/05/2024 05:51

Stop gambling. If you can't stop then you are addicted and need to get help. But no gambling isn't a suitable solution

lambballs · 03/05/2024 05:56

You've not got a strategy. You bet on zero because you think it's more likely to come up than any one of the other numbers.

Step away.

Caffeineneedednow · 03/05/2024 05:58

As others have said stop now before you lose more then you can afford to.

The house always wins. This is a very very slippery slope that you already sound like you've started to slip down.

sweetnessandlighter · 03/05/2024 06:02

Gambling addiction is a slippery slope sadly.

FixTheBone · 03/05/2024 06:03

If its a 'fair' roulette table, the best you can ever do is break even over a long enough time period.

If it isn't, and you've somehow stumbled on a way to beat the odds, its onky a matter of time before other people discover the same and that data is fed back to the company that makes the machines, and the software is altered to mitigate it.

Immemorialelms · 03/05/2024 06:06

If you're doing it for fun and you're going to to do it anyway, keep a spreadsheet over the next month of how many hours you play, the amount you put in and what you get out. Then work out your income or loss rate per hour of playing. That's the only way you could possibly tell if you have made any net profit or loss and whether you have any return on your investment of time,

I don't think you should do that though because your original post was quite muddled and it feels like you're trying to find reasons to gamble. So I think you'd likely be over optimistic about the spreadsheet and fill it in wrong - our brains do silly things to us when we want something.

Have you had problems gambling before OP?

froggirl · 03/05/2024 06:07

The house always wins.

froggirl · 03/05/2024 06:10

If it was a good thing to do, don't you think everyone would be doing it?

You've not got a life hack here.

You've got a slippery slope to a gambling addiction.

Denimdenimdenim · 03/05/2024 06:12

Quit while you're ahead.

RecycleMePlease · 03/05/2024 06:17

These machines are heavily regulated - their return over time will be printed on the machine somewhere (something like 85% payout - I've not looked at one for ages)

There's nothing special about 0 and 00

Over time, you will lose. The payout level is designed to give you your money back enough that you think you're winning.

I've had plenty of mates who thought they were winning on the fruities, but when I counted the pound coins they were putting in over our various pub nights, they were losing, exactly as predicted

RecycleMePlease · 03/05/2024 06:19

If its a 'fair' roulette table, the best you can ever do is break even over a long enough time period.

No roulette wheel is 50/50 fair - because of 0 and 00 (note that they're even greedy enough to need two 0s).

JeysusH · 03/05/2024 06:26

Noooo.

I own a software company that made a lot of money providing services to the gambling industry.

And that wasn't because people kept winning.

I would advise you to stop immediately.

shoppingshamed · 03/05/2024 06:29

CountingCrones · 03/05/2024 04:48

The house always wins

Overall yes but individual players can be upz the two things aren't mutually exclusive

If your strategy works OP why risk the machines being reprogrammed by telling everyone?

Tel12 · 03/05/2024 06:30

Stop now while you have a choice. There's no surefire way to make money from these things and gambling ruins lives.