Text Gambling Bugbear

Friday, March 05, 2004

Text Gambling Bugbear

My Bugbear - mobile phone gambling on bugs, bugs me.

Bug Match
Watching ITV's Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here UK reality tv show, in a jungle somewhere around Australia way, over the past week or so, you bet I could'nt help noticing a gamble on offer. Live on ITV2 between 4 and 8 o'clock in the evening an interactive player mobile phone game called Bug Match can be played for prizes of £50.

During the hours of 4 and 8 means kids are at home from school and not in bed yet. Let's just call it bad timing.

Bug Match Game Objective
Aptly named Bug Match the idea of the game is to match 2 of the pictures of insects that are hidden from view on a grid of 12, alphabetically arranged so you can choose 2 letters and see if they match bug to bug. A bit like the card game of snap or better still find the pairs, remember the one where all the cards are randomly placed face down flat? You have to memorise the upturned cards and where they are as you play, so you can find pairs of the same numbers.

Right well you just guess from A-L and send in your 2 guesses by text, if you pick the right 2 letters you get 100 points, if you are the first to guess right. On a sliding scale, the next quickest player to guess the right pair of letters, gets 99 points, and so on down to 75 and there everyone gets the same.

The bugs change position every now and then so therefore the letters do too - all very clever don't you think? This carries on for 10 minutes and you can play over and over to see if you end up with the most points, if you do you win £50.

Consider over a 10 minute period, texting in 2 letters over and over to give your self a chance at winning the £50. With each text costing a costly 50 pence, I cannot see how with the hundreds of players playing live on terrestrial tv, how anyone in thier right mind who can count will join in.

Bug Match Game Cost
Consider i've seen the leaderboard at the end of the ten minute games reach over 3000 points for the leading player I am thinking thats atleast a very conservative 30 calls.

1 player x 30 calls x 50p = £15
£15 to win £50
Approx 3 - 1 shot Jackpot against maybe hundreds of players gives an overound of an unguessable amount.

Gamblog Comment :: Nice work if you can get it. Why do people play these silly games? How it is allowed live on interactive mainstream television?

Problem Gaming at it's finest - how one can stop kids ringing in on Mums, Dads or thier own mobile phone is a mystery.

February 12, 2004 : Text Gambling / Trivia Bugbear Update.
Text gambling 24 hours a day on ITV?

I am no prude but when I see ITV advertising they will be running a 24 hour text trivia game on ITV1, my hackles raise somewhat. If I see what I consider to be gambling by text messages via mobile phones live, I think there will be uproar amongst the anti gambling brigade and this time rightfully so in my opinion.

Come the day the ITV powers that be try to put a live trivia game at 50 pence a pop, or whatever the cost will be, in the corner of the screen beside coronation street or the news at half past 10 in the evening, the proverbial will hit the fan.

I want to see what checks are going be put in place, to stop minors running up ridiculous phone bills playing this game.
Gamblog Comment :: It is just not going to happen in my opinion, but I saw ITV advertise it with my own 2 eyes. If this goes ahead there will be hell to pay somewhere down the line.

Text Gambling Related
♠ Easy TV Quiz Games - Skill or Lottery? - Gambling Commission Investigates

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