Mine was zero!Went into a pub in the law area of central Bristol for the 1st time. Landlord told me to play the machine properly ( no I wasnt playing it standing on my head ) or get out.I told him I could play it how I liked.Straight out the door.
MY NOMINATION- PUB CENTRAL BRISTOL 2004
AMOUNT WON- ZERO
TIME IN PUB - LESS THAN TEN MINUTES
LOWEST WIN YOU GOT BANNED FROM A PUB FOR & QUICKEST BANN
Re: LOWEST WIN YOU GOT BANNED FROM A PUB FOR & QUICKEST
Now this is a surprise. The story about you being barred from the Litten Tree in Bournemouth at least involved you having won some money and some element of confrontation with the pub manager that might foreseeably (if unfairly in your eyes) have led to that happening. However to be barred before even winning a penny makes me think that either you have "previous" of some sort at that pub and the landlord recognised you or you were doing one of the things which I noted at the time might be causing you to get barred on a regular basis - for new readers this is at least the third time that cool has posted about being barred from somewhere.cool wrote:Mine was zero!Went into a pub in the law area of central Bristol for the 1st time. Landlord told me to play the machine properly ( no I wasnt playing it standing on my head ) or get out.I told him I could play it how I liked.Straight out the door.
MY NOMINATION- PUB CENTRAL BRISTOL 2004
AMOUNT WON- ZERO
TIME IN PUB - LESS THAN TEN MINUTES
My guesses at the time were the following:
The reference to QuizMaster is the hint he made to the sort of behaviour that I think would cause any landlord or manager to feel they could legitimately bar you:Nil Satis wrote:QuizMaster may have inside information or he may just be being mischievous but he does touch on something that has puzzled me about your story, Mr Cool, namely that you say you average twenty pubs a day for an expected win of circa £5 per pub. Now to me winning around £5 per pub isn't going to get you barred anywhere (accepting that this is an average and you will have some £10s and £20s to balance out losses or only breaking even).
On the other hand to visit that many pubs each day, even if they are all relatively close together, means that you must be in and out of some of them like greased lightning (running between them as you hinted?), and as for buying drinks, which must surely be seen by anyone with any sense as the 'entrance fee' for playing a machine in a pub, one of a few possibilities occur:
(i) you are an alcoholic (even at a half pint a pub)
(ii) you have no teeth left from all those Cokes/J20s
(iii) you are mainly buying water
(iv) you are buying something in each pub but not usually drinking it
(v) you are not buying anything
I'd say the further down that list you get to (v), the more likely you are to attract attention and if that is combined with a confrontational attitude, which certainly seems possible from your story, then barring is going to become quite likely.
I think the phrase is "A Word to the Wise"...
Now clearly you can deny all of this and stick to your story that you are just being incredibly unlucky in your run-ins with pub management but as Inspector Morse was fond of saying "Something just doesn't add up"...QuizMaster wrote:I've thought of a fourth reason which may lead to a ban from a pub.
Walking in with a decaffinated teabag and asking the staff to make you a cup of tea, then going to the Gamesnet/itBox and whapping £20 out of a Pespi as fast as you like.
That'd probably get you banned.
Not that I'm suggesting anybody may have done that of course..........
P.S. Not to labour the point but my answer to your question is:
TIME SPENT PLAYING AND WINNING ON QUIZ MACHINES: 20 years
NUMBER OF TIMES BARRED IN ALL THAT TIME: Zero
Their are many reasons why one person gets barred more than others from pubs.It is a product of frequency of visits, type of pub (more likely to be banned from small pub or freehouse),time of visits,honesty(if challenged I will state I do it full-time)and ability.99.9% of pub landlords are ok.Mr Satis ask yourself if I had anything to hide why would I go to the local newspaper and the trade newspaper, the Morning Advertiser?As stated before if you would like to read through all the correspondence leave your address or that of a third party so that I can forward it to you on 07946-0555-06.Perhaps after reading the details you will change your opinion of me!
Mr C
I don't want you to think I am getting at you, I just find it hard to believe that there are not certain things you could do to reduce your chances of getting barred. Had the incident in Bournemouth been the only instance of being barred you had reported then I would have probably accepted that you were just unlucky enough to encounter a pub manager who was having a bad day and who decided to get physically aggressive with someone who was winning on the quiz machine. But given that your first post on here was about getting barred in Beaconsfield and now there is your recent story of getting barred from a pub in Bristol without having even won a penny, which must be some sort of record, it's a little harder to accept Bournemouth as just bad luck.
I accept that there are different 'modes' of playing the machines and that these different modes increase or decrease one's chances of encountering problems with bar staff and landlords. For example:
- time of playing - I almost always play in the evening and for a lucrative machine would make a deliberate effort to be there when the pub in question was busy and noisy. Playing a machine at 3.00pm when there's virtually no one else in is much more likely to draw you to people's attention
- buying a drink - I rarely visit lots of pubs in one day/evening and would always buy a drink and often tip the barstaff - as QuizMaster has noted, 50p in the barmaid's tips glass can have an amazing effect on how they view you
- general behaviour - I dress relatively(!) smartly, behave discreetly and avoid confrontations. I also am very loath to report underpayments etc, unless I genuinely expect never to see that pub again or if I know the staff in there reasonably well and know they won't have a problem with this. I know that I can always go back another time and make good the loss
Personally I have never had to/chosen to play the machines as my sole form of income and this clearly affects how I choose to play, whereas I believe that you do play the machines as your living and I'm sure this has an impact on how you play/behave. In the beginning I was trying to offer you some constructive advice as to how to avoid problems, in the same way that I have learned over 20 years how best to ensure I can take repeated winnings from the same pubs.
You must be an intelligent guy to earn your living like this and for me it seems obvious that if some particular aspect of what you do is increasing your chances of being barred etc. then for your own protection and just as importantly for the long-term protection of your only source of income you would look into adapting that behaviour.
If I got barred from lots of places I'd be annoyed but could always go back to my day job but if you continue to get barred then it is much more serious for you. Despite what you think (and I guess we'll all been guilty of this when we find a particular machine or game on which we can win lots of cash), pubs are not there to provide quiz machine players with income, the quiz machines are there to provide pubs with income and therefore you are acting against their interests by winning regularly and hence you need to 'play the game' in the widest sense.
Whatever it is you are doing that makes you stand out from the crowd - if it's:
- not buying drinks
- asking for cups of tea to be made for you
- running between pubs dressed in running shorts
- being rude and/or boastful with pub staff, managers or regulars
- etc
or if we take you at your word and it's NONE of these things and that your only 'crime' is to win too often in the same pubs, adapting your behaviour to avoid these problems seems to be so much in your own interests that I can't see why you wouldn't consider doing so. OK, maybe it doesn't matter what I think, but then I'm not the one barring you from pubs...
I don't want you to think I am getting at you, I just find it hard to believe that there are not certain things you could do to reduce your chances of getting barred. Had the incident in Bournemouth been the only instance of being barred you had reported then I would have probably accepted that you were just unlucky enough to encounter a pub manager who was having a bad day and who decided to get physically aggressive with someone who was winning on the quiz machine. But given that your first post on here was about getting barred in Beaconsfield and now there is your recent story of getting barred from a pub in Bristol without having even won a penny, which must be some sort of record, it's a little harder to accept Bournemouth as just bad luck.
I accept that there are different 'modes' of playing the machines and that these different modes increase or decrease one's chances of encountering problems with bar staff and landlords. For example:
- time of playing - I almost always play in the evening and for a lucrative machine would make a deliberate effort to be there when the pub in question was busy and noisy. Playing a machine at 3.00pm when there's virtually no one else in is much more likely to draw you to people's attention
- buying a drink - I rarely visit lots of pubs in one day/evening and would always buy a drink and often tip the barstaff - as QuizMaster has noted, 50p in the barmaid's tips glass can have an amazing effect on how they view you
- general behaviour - I dress relatively(!) smartly, behave discreetly and avoid confrontations. I also am very loath to report underpayments etc, unless I genuinely expect never to see that pub again or if I know the staff in there reasonably well and know they won't have a problem with this. I know that I can always go back another time and make good the loss
Personally I have never had to/chosen to play the machines as my sole form of income and this clearly affects how I choose to play, whereas I believe that you do play the machines as your living and I'm sure this has an impact on how you play/behave. In the beginning I was trying to offer you some constructive advice as to how to avoid problems, in the same way that I have learned over 20 years how best to ensure I can take repeated winnings from the same pubs.
You must be an intelligent guy to earn your living like this and for me it seems obvious that if some particular aspect of what you do is increasing your chances of being barred etc. then for your own protection and just as importantly for the long-term protection of your only source of income you would look into adapting that behaviour.
If I got barred from lots of places I'd be annoyed but could always go back to my day job but if you continue to get barred then it is much more serious for you. Despite what you think (and I guess we'll all been guilty of this when we find a particular machine or game on which we can win lots of cash), pubs are not there to provide quiz machine players with income, the quiz machines are there to provide pubs with income and therefore you are acting against their interests by winning regularly and hence you need to 'play the game' in the widest sense.
Whatever it is you are doing that makes you stand out from the crowd - if it's:
- not buying drinks
- asking for cups of tea to be made for you
- running between pubs dressed in running shorts
- being rude and/or boastful with pub staff, managers or regulars
- etc
or if we take you at your word and it's NONE of these things and that your only 'crime' is to win too often in the same pubs, adapting your behaviour to avoid these problems seems to be so much in your own interests that I can't see why you wouldn't consider doing so. OK, maybe it doesn't matter what I think, but then I'm not the one barring you from pubs...
Thank you for your reasonable reply. I do occasionally run between pubs
but not in full running regalia. If I averaged out the number of pubs I visit a day , the ones I buy a drink in and play a machine it would amount to at least 15 a day . I average approximately 2 bannings a year after thousand of visits. I do not abuse or shout at barstaff if I am banned with 1 exception.I will stand up for myself if somebody calls me a thief or a cheat. You are innocent until proven guilty , except in certain British pubs. The fact is the machines are not even owned by the pubs. I have spoken and written to both the main machine manufacturers and game inventors with no problem.Its amazing when you get a non-payment its not our machine guv and yet when you win a reasonable amount and they dont like it it is).
but not in full running regalia. If I averaged out the number of pubs I visit a day , the ones I buy a drink in and play a machine it would amount to at least 15 a day . I average approximately 2 bannings a year after thousand of visits. I do not abuse or shout at barstaff if I am banned with 1 exception.I will stand up for myself if somebody calls me a thief or a cheat. You are innocent until proven guilty , except in certain British pubs. The fact is the machines are not even owned by the pubs. I have spoken and written to both the main machine manufacturers and game inventors with no problem.Its amazing when you get a non-payment its not our machine guv and yet when you win a reasonable amount and they dont like it it is).