Casino.org – A gambling addict from High Wycombe in the UK has told the BBC that Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) – such as poker and roulette machines – need to have tighter betting limitations built in, to prevent what he calls the fallout from “the crack cocaine of the gambling industry.”
Roger Radler’s gambling addiction reached a pinnacle when he lost a whole month’s wages in just a few hours playing on betting machines, where he says he could “bet £100 every 10 seconds” on roulette games, which equates to more than $160 for every 10-second interval, or around $57,600 per hour.
Sounds like Roger had a pretty good job to be able to lose that much.
“You can get your high every 15 seconds and you are losing huge sums of money,” explained Radler. “At my worst, I probably lost a month’s salary in a couple of hours and that’s horrendous.”
As a result of his addiction to these gaming machines, Radler lost everything – his job, his wife, and his self-respect – all of which he now blames on the FOBTs. At least the speed of these machines may be somewhat accountable for more rapid, massive losses.
“On table roulette, everyone has their own set of chips, makes their own bets on the live table and it takes a minute or two to get the resolution,” said Derek Webb, a fellow British gambler who became a millionaire from gambling, as well as inventing Three Card Poker.
