vaginalbob wrote:Also, if they're well-qualified grads, the quizzing was doubtless only a one-off 'gap-year' escapade before they become working stiffs, so they don't mind scuppering their chances of continuing as pros.
Also I would guess they've played the machines for several years and this is could be the first game they've been able to bum.
quizard wrote:In the past many of these people were fringe players rather than hard-core pros. These two have probably already made more than £10k out of the story. It was probably all the more interesting because of the type of people they are. If it had been some fat, bald, middle-aged geezer it may not have seemed half as interesting to the media.
I agree, a sort of yuppie "everyman/woman" attribute. A story about a Scrabble pro doing well on word-games is not surprising news, it's pretty obvious.
Nil Satis is spot on the money with his analysis of the qualities of a good quiz machine. Many machines in the 1996-1999 glory days had all three features in spades but as Nil Satis notes, nowadays you're frankly lucky if you get one of them. As I've said here before I once came very near a JP on a Monopoly Deluxe (the JP was at about 6,000 points but I was playing poorly), so I could well believe someone else has done the trick. And there's at least one of the games Nil Satis mentions where I recently took £20 in dribs and drabs for an investment of about £4 in one playing session - only time I've ever seen it properly generous mind you. Not sure whether this was a one-off of the type Nil Satis mentions.
As I say I know David and Lesley well (I won't be dignifying Watergate's views on them with a response) and I am fairly sure that they have not received any cash for their media appearances. I have some occasional involvement in media articles myself through having done various television quizzes and the media are generally very unwilling to pay 'Joe Public' for this kind of story (but at the same time all too willing to print the story if they can get it for free).
In response to Quizard this story is definitely "all true" - I have been kept fully au fait with David's and Lesley's progress as they raided Big Match and have seen them in action on it many times. I myself must have won about £400 gross from this just in Central London (for some reason David and Lesley didn't really 'do' central London!) so I can well believe a figure of £10k from a UK-wide search. What surprised me was the fact that in nearly all towns visited it was clear no local had been playing BM - I think out of all the towns they visited only Norwich, Watford and Islington had unquestionably been 'done' by someone else. As for the investment to get the £10k my feeling was the figure of £500 quoted in the Sun was an underestimate - £10k represents 500 machines jackpotted, so £500 probably represents a minimum investment in terms of paying for games (assuming each £20 was one with at most one game continue, which from my own experience is difficult on BM). Also throw in transport costs (mainly petrol) and drinks costs and I'd have thought David's and Lesley's total outlay might have been more like £2k - still a very good return though.
As to their motivation, I think VB's observation that winning money from quiz machines is a cool thing to tell people about is absolutely the right reason. Whilst it's not correct to say that David and Lesley are doing this as a gap year escapade (David's been a teacher for the last five years or so since leaving University) it's true to say that they both take the keeping schtum aspect of quiz machining a lot less seriously than other contributors to this board, who might, for example, have to earn a living from the machines. I don't think either David or Lesley have any ambitions to be quiz machine professionals - I think like many of us they just enjoy the feeling of earning money from quiz machines solely through their own wits. Whilst I don't think David or Lesley have won these kinds of sums from machines before (who has?) David has certainly been a very keen player for about ten years and has done very well from certain machines at certain times.
WaterGate wrote:
Well thats just typical of your 'I'm great at Word up & spelling and I can make long words and impress everyone how great I am and clever'
He & she should have kept it to themselves.
