# UK FOBTs vs online gambling **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 28, 2018, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-fobts-vs-online-gambling/814947 "2018-05-28T06:47:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-fobts-vs-online-gambling/814947/1 "2018-05-28T06:47:23Z")
So they’re reducing the maximum bet on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) to £2 as FOBTs are apparently a gambling menace, (for my money that is fine for slots but should be higher for Blackjack style low variance games, as far as I can tell this is going to be the maximum per round including all seats and supplementary bets. £1 on 2 seats and you can’t double. £1 on one seat you still can’t double after split.) However a guy chugging the maximum £50 megabet into a FOBT slot all day for a week will not lose anywhere near the £65000 that someone could bet at, for example Royal Panda roulette where they could sign on, deposit their life savings, place a single bet and be £65000 down within 5 minutes. I don’t see the same outrage aimed at online casinos here so what’s the discrepancy? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-fobts-vs-online-gambling/814947/2 "2018-05-28T10:18:38Z")
I’m not seeing a debate here. Let’s see if it’ll do better in IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-fobts-vs-online-gambling/814947/3 "2018-05-28T10:38:56Z")
Please don’t move it, I put it here as it is about a current hot button issue here in the UK and here it belongs. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-fobts-vs-online-gambling/814947/4 "2018-05-28T11:26:11Z")
It’s now in GQ which is worse than where I originally put it **and** where you claimed it was going. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-fobts-vs-online-gambling/814947/5 "2018-05-28T11:39:13Z")
Indeed. Something up with my iPad. Off to IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-fobts-vs-online-gambling/814947/6 "2018-05-28T14:27:01Z")
> [@Mr\_Shine](#): > > owever a guy chugging the maximum £50 megabet into a FOBT slot all day for a week will not lose anywhere near the £65000 …. Here in the UK FOBTs permit stakes of up to £100, every 20 seconds. So that’s £300 / minute; £18,000 / hour; £216,000 in 12 hours; £1,512,000 a week. Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-fobts-vs-online-gambling/814947/7 "2018-05-28T14:56:27Z")
> [@glee](#): > > Here in the UK FOBTs permit stakes of up to £100, every 20 seconds. > > So that’s £300 / minute; £18,000 / hour; £216,000 in 12 hours; £1,512,000 a week. > > Sheesh. OK using those figures the guy is playing a fast game, probably a nonbonus version of roulette, so he’ll keep 36/37 on average, and the sheer number of bets he’s made in that time means he’ll be very close to the average RTP, so our maxbetting 12 hours a day guy will lose about £40000 in a week. Online he could lose that and more in one spin. The actual RTP average loss of a £65000 spin would be just over £1750 but would have a massive chance of losing it all immediately. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-fobts-vs-online-gambling/814947/8 "2018-05-28T15:06:36Z")
> **[When stupitidy pays off bigtime. (Online gambling, thanks beer!)](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=470154)** > > Man, I had too much to dring last night, and my judgement was seriously impaired. I like Online gambling, saw an offer that a casino would increase all net winnings over a 24 hour period on Blackjack by 10%, thought ‘OK I’ll have one big bet that... Here’s a 10 year old thread by some joker on the SMDB. He didn’t have any problems depositing several grand and risking it on one hand of cards. Online casinos and banks will still allow huge debit card payments and instant access to gaming. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2018, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-fobts-vs-online-gambling/814947/9 "2018-11-14T20:45:40Z")
OK given FOBTs are back in the news, (£2 limit starts in April), and nobody really discussed the point in the OP first time around, I’ll give this a little bump. I’m still unsure about the outcry over FOBTs when someone can easily bankrupt themselves in a couple of spins online and there’s much less/almost no focus on that. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2018, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-fobts-vs-online-gambling/814947/10 "2018-11-14T20:53:46Z")
Too late to edit. I know this makes 4 posts in a row by me, but the first 2 were months ago 🙂 Since the OP I’ve seen £90,000/spin online roulette, available to new players, not VIP-locked. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2018, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-fobts-vs-online-gambling/814947/11 "2018-11-14T23:20:21Z")
The problem with FOBTs is not so much at the high-roller end you are talking about - it’s that the many bookies in every high street in every depressed town in the UK has people on benefits or a low wage blowing their entire budget on a quick hit. You seem like a sophisticated gambler - you surely recognise that many people aren’t.