Too hot to handle
My laptop is having serious over heating problems. Mind you this is only when I am trying to play games which I wouldn’t say are THAT graphically demanding but seeing as how laptops aren’t really designed for cooling then I guess I shall have to suffer and play with the gpu conveniently located on the left hand side, half way off the table as if it heats the table the whole thing lasts 3 seconds before shutting down. I have stuck the laptop in the fridge, freezers, you name it and I have tried it to cool this mother down but it just seems to want to die. We have been through so much together too!
It’s really hard to use a laptop when it plays like this.
Koko used to love my laptop to sit on whilst I was using it.
Just like this.
So yeah, the only way I could possibly end up playing my games is to A) switch back to console gaming, though I can’t play my tank game on that or B) somehow buy a new laptop or build a gaming rig which actually has airflow and cooling capability. All of these options are expensive as I really actually fancy playing Forza motorsport but I don’t have the disc so even that needs money. That and I want the Mass Effect trilogy for PS3. I still haven’t played the AWESOME HITMAN HD TRILOGY that Eve bought me. I have the games on my laptop and have stopped playing them in favour of the ps3 versions, I just want another pad for it as all the running and gunning in Borderlands has left certain triggers kind of soft. Damn Sony! Pads can’t take a beating! The consoles can though. The PS3 has had small children stand on it and knock it off the cupboard and runs like a beast. I’ve had the same PS3 since it came out and has never ever broken. I have had 3 xbox 360s in this time. They are without a doubt the worst piece of pansy ass shit console on the planet. I had a book, a paper back fall 10" onto it and it mangled a disc and broke the hard drive. Corrupted. Still love them, but Jesus I fucking hate the shit out of them too! Made of tissue paper! *shakes fist angrily at being over £600 out of pocket paying for that shit*
So yes,
Work was horrible today, there is a customer who comes in who I shall call M. M has SERIOUS GAMBLING PROBLEMS! So much so that once she gambled away all the money for her young daughters birthday party leaving her daughter and friends without a food or party or anything. This is horrid.
So she is usually a bit scary but today she has thrown £260 away, probably more and all her winnings. She swears more than I do about Xbox 360s. She kicks, punches, pushes, bangs, swears at and generally abuses the machines whilst pacing back and forth saying "come onnnnn" she is very scary. Very violent and very clearly has an incredible problem with gambling. Today after gambling all of that money she turned to me and said "I am in deep shit now, I need that" which implies she really did need that money and gambled it anyway. I turned off the change machine, called last credits and 10 minutes later she was still throwing everything she had into the machines. Until finally she ran out and said that she had actually gambled her bus fare home too.
I’ve talked to my managers about her, they’ve spoken to her about self exclusion from the venue so she can’t come in for a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of 5 years. We’ve spoken to her, given her GamCare leaflets which are a gambling charity to help addicts and she pays no attention but still gambles it away.
It was really hard to watch and I became quite concerned but I was told that I would see a lot more of that. I mean even looking at the reports from the past, she has broken the machine she plays on once, and all her consistent swearing and attitude are very uncomfortable for the other customers. God help us if the mystery customer comes in. I am going to have another word with C tomorrow to see what he can do but I know he can’t do anything. I asked J today and she said we have done all we can.
I should state that I am not mentioning any actual names, venue or company in this entry and that the views expressed here are entirely my own. I mean I am also not sure how my employers view the Xbox either so…
It was just hard to sit back and watch. We have a duty of social responsibility to our customers but sadly we can only talk to them and never offer counselling ourselves which is understandable as we are not trained but it’s getting the player to admit they have a problem and responsibilities like children and family and work that will suffer directly as a result of them gambling beyond their means. The house always wins. Our machines run from 80% average payout to 97% with the best strategy on Roulette.
80% payout is based on the life of the machine. If players put £100,000 into a machine then typically they are supposed to get £800,000 back in wins whilst the company keeps £200,000. But most games are influenced by previous play. They use psuedorandom number generators.
LET THE LESSON COMMENCE!
A virtual reel on a computer slot machine can have lets say 256 virtual stops per reel would allow up to 2563 = 16,777,216 final positions over 3 reels. The manufacturer could choose to offer a million dollar jackpot from a $1 bet, confident that it will only happen every 16.7 million plays. However still paying out 80% of what has been taken in by the machine. The computer can also and frequently does offer fake wins, where if a customer plays £1 a go the machine can pay 50p back, it’s a win, but still losing money. It keeps the players gambling though.
Some machines have 5 lines, even with just 16 symbols on a reel the jackpot is still 1 in 1048576. With a common 32 or 64 reel…
32 = 1 in 33,554,432
64 = 1 in 1,073,741,824
256 would be…. 1 in 1,099,511,627,776 *cough* one trillion ninety-nine billion five hundred eleven million six hundred twenty-seven thousand seven hundred seventy-six
In perspective, if you played it on auto play which is a game every 3 seconds on a fast machine… it would take 107,240 years… non stop to spin a winning combination on a 5 reel 256 symbol game. Even on a 16 symbol game with 5 reels it would take 5 weeks of non stop playing to land a jackpot.
The machines are smart, with the pseudorandom generators they can track how much they have taken and pay nothing, nothing at all, if they wanted too. They could take £1 a stake and let players put in the full 1,073,741,824 an
d on the last spin pay out the 80% to one player. They don’t, take that in mind. What they do instead is play over the jackpot as far as I can tell, if you put in £100 for a £100 jackpot at 80% you will need to play more as you aren’t guaranteed the jackpot. Instead you’d need to pay about £120 to expect the £100 jackpot, meeting the minimum average payout.
What it may just do is pay out 80% in many smaller amounts which the player usually transfers over as trivial winnings or fake wins to go for the jackpot which never comes as the machine by law is always still meeting its minimum 80% payout.
The gamblers don’t realise this though. They get possessive of the machines, that’s my machine because I threw £500 into it yesterday and the jackpots are due (they’re not, probably) they know that machines go "on the take" and then pay out big but it’s mostly an illusion that they are gambling away their 80% return in fake wins.
Hence today why M was able to throw £260 into a bank of 3 machines with £25 jackpots and win nothing but 2 jackpots which she gambled. That’s almost 870 games she played and the machines by law gave her at least £208 back but in the odd pound or five pounds which were gambled back to keep the machine in credit. It’s insane and crafty and really interesting to me how the maths is done and such but literally horrible when you see the impact of it.
Gambling can be fun, heck why not put a £2 euromillions on for the 1 in 56 million chance you have of winning the jackpot. Why not put £2 into a slot machine for the 1 in 1 billion, 73 million, 741 thousand and 824 chance that you could win £500 if the one symbol lines up on all 5 slots? because it’s much more likely to pay it out than that, it’s influenced and it’s possible to win the jackpot in one spin. I’ve seen it done in less than 20 spins and I’ve only been there a few months. I know no lottery winners. Just saying.
It just struck me today that gambling issues are very real and very scary. The maths also gave me a geekgasm.
Scary.
(S)aint x
p.s
Wish me luck