Spread Betting

[TheMonkey]

There must be a good market for gambling site code or simple templated sites where you can change the algorithms used ? As far as I know, the on-line sites are pretty much unregulated so you can cheat as much as you like. Not that I would...

Not really - people want busy sites with some good competition and that means a few niche high use sites like party poker / 666. Not only that, they are SERIOUSLY scalable bits of kit. I'm talking 10,000 concurrent hit load spikes.

They are generally regulated "voluntarily" so that they look good. The audit process is VERY extensive. As most of them are offshore, they also have problems with local legislation, taxation, payment, accounting standards, PCI DSS etc.

They are super-complicated believe me.

[oraclesmith]

There goes Plan B. There must be a way....

[TheMonkey]

There goes Plan B. There must be a way....

I have thought that one through thoroughly. There isn't a way. Coming up with something new is the only way in that market.

[oraclesmith]

Something new, something new...... a challenge !! I like it ! Plan B lives again.

[threaded]

Just changing the subject slightly - what's to stop an on-line gambling site from being completely fixed ? eg. anyone with a bit of technical skill could create a site which plays, say, blackjack with an on-line punter and maybe some other fake players, and only ever allows the punter to win back a fraction of what they've gambled. At least with real gambling you can see the cards being shuffled and dealt so it's hard (but not impossible) to fix, but with virtual gambling it's so temptingly easy-peasy that it's hard not to assume that all these sites are fixed.

That, in a nutshell, is how a one-armed-bandit works. (Incidentally it is the law that says it has to work that way.)

threaded in "I write the music for fruit machines don't you know" mode.

[oraclesmith]

That, in a nutshell, is how a one-armed-bandit works. (Incidentally it is the law that says it has to work that way.)

threaded in "I write the music for fruit machines don't you know" mode.

Yes, but the one-arm bandit doesn't know who's playing it. With on-line gambling you could tinker with the algorithm to guarantee that the session punter loses first, then gets a partial win. That way no first-time punter could walk away with a big win, only for the site to have to claw it back from unluckier punters. I know that over time the site would get an initial big win all back, but done my way you could provide the illusion of big payouts without actually risking anything - think cashflow !

[threaded]

Yes, but the one-arm bandit doesn't know who's playing it. With on-line gambling you could tinker with the algorithm to guarantee that the session punter loses first, then gets a partial win. That way no first-time punter could walk away with a big win, only for the site to have to claw it back from unluckier punters. I know that over time the site would get an initial big win all back, but done my way you could provide the illusion of big payouts without actually risking anything - think cashflow !

Do you know that many fruit machine incorporate an artificial intelligence unit that can determine if you are a new player...

threaded in "and that's the 6502/Z80 ones, the 68000s play YOU!" mode

[DimPrawn]

Threaded I think you've let slip the real you.

Not some high flying ex-military academic international high flyer.

You are infact an old fat ex fruit-machine engineer.

Oh Dear.

[threaded]

Threaded I think you've let slip the real you.

Not some high flying ex-military academic international high flyer.

You are infact an old fat ex fruit-machine engineer.

Oh Dear.

Tis true, made lots of money out of fruit machines.

threaded in "like stealing candy from a baby" mode

[oraclesmith]

Do you know that many fruit machine incorporate an artificial intelligence unit that can determine if you are a new player...

threaded in "and that's the 6502/Z80 ones, the 68000s play YOU!" mode

.....
IF (time_since_last_played > decent_period_in_seconds) AND (credit_balance = 0) AND money_deposited THEN
new_player := TRUE;
END IF;
....