This would effectively end the game there and then and render the show unusable as it would be a complete anti-climax even if the editors decided to air it.

So there is no real skill in the game other than deciding what u can afford to gamble at the end of the random box picking.

The banker is just some tit reading from a script back stage. Wait, maybe it’s an RBS director giving away cash to total buffoons …..which isn’t unusual!

I think there is some sort of banker involved (the contestants often talk to him on the phone and in the American version you can see him in the background), but whether it’s his own money or not is another question.

So the skill is fourfold: reading the value of the game and factoring in what it’s worth to you as you say, but also knowing when to leave the game (ie trying to guess what the game will be worth in future rounds), and trying to convince the banker that you’re not going to leave with a crappy offer, so that he doesn’t waste his time and yours with an offer you’re not going to take.

I’ve often thought of trying to get on the show and treating it exactly as it is. Make it clear to the banker and everyone else that I’m not there to beat the banker, I don’t care if he pays me more than the box is worth or not, as long as I get a healthy slice too. Let everyone know that I’m picking numbers at random and maybe even have a system so they know what I’m going for next, either left to right or 1-22. The only problem I have with that is that if the banker does know where the money is, then I’d be wide open to getting screwed.

But of course the game thrives on this kind of gambler’s superstition (which IIRC they’ve managed to induce in pidgeons). Noel himself is well-known for having a big gambling problem, and it’s telling that the majority of the contestants will go along with the superstition. It’s likely that’s what the viewers see in the show too, and the producers don’t want to ruin that by having someone on who shows it up for what it really is – random.