Beat the slots
Slot machine jackpot
"YOU REALLY CAN BEAT THE SLOTS"
So ran a headline in Londons' Independent on Sunday, and there's the rub.
The article was based on the habits of slot players in the UK.
Unlike the US, where casinos line up slot machines in their hundreds, the UK's 240,000 odd machines are scattered around in ones and twos. In pubs, fast food outlets and clubs.
And very much unlike the US casinos, the payouts are much smaller, maybe 10 pounds in a bar and up to 100 pounds in private clubs.
But UK slots do pay out more frequently - in days as opposed to weeks in the US.
On the forum at gambling.co.uk, a UK slot player, appropriately calling himself "Slotterman', claims to be a full time slot player and a winner. He says "There have been very good years in the 1990s when I made over 4000 pounds a month, but the learning curve was costly".
Try telling that to Susanne Orton.
Blinded by the lights, mesmerised by nudges, beeps and holds, she poured 170,000 pounds of her and her husbands money into slots.
And when everything she had or could steal was gone, she was found out and landed up in jail.
According to research carried out by the University of Trent, Nottingham, "players like that are addicts who need to play for excitement, not financial rewards. But there are a small number of players who consistantly win more than they lose".
So how do the 'winners' do it, you may ask?
Well, they simply watch and listen. The majority of players on UK machines are short term players. Casual slotters who gamble just a few pennies at a time for fun then return to their beer at the bar.
So the 'watcher' waits until the machine is well topped up with coins, and probably due for a hit. This can take hours of watching and waiting while many people play, before moving in for the kill.
The 'listeners' claim they can tell by 'boxing', whereby the sound of a coin dropping into the collection box tells them when the machine is full.
However, as 'Slotterman' would admit, the wait could be long and costly.
Because in the end they are going to be losers like Mrs Orton anyway.