In fact, it proves the game isn't rigged. This incident had to be fully investigated at the time as is reported in a number of papers today. It proved there is an indepedent adjudicator who genuinely works alone and genuinely made a mistake.

TV shows can't make things up anymore. If there was no independent adjudicator Deal would have been charged months ago for saying that there was.

I thought that was fascinating. Really exciting, even though I knew it was going to happen weeks ago!

Why would they intentionally leave it out of the box? With all the trouble endemol have been in with the viewers comp, do you actually think they would pull something like that! I think Noel did a great job with the situation they were in!

Imagine what the game would have been like if the £250k wasnt left out!

The viewer's comp was run by Channel 4 not Endemol but still you're right. They cannot fix this game in any way. New rules mean that would be fraud.

It's a shame people still believe in foul play since all it does is spoil your enjoyment of extraordinary things when they happen

Shame he dealt to early too. That's my only gripe. Would have been even more amazing if he'd pushed on a touch further!

This is very different. It's not like they are cheating the nation out of millions. It's one man. A priest infact. Priests are the most understanding people in the world.
I tell you what is a fact. It is a fact they tried to turn that episode into a religious thing. Banker offering 666, the 250k being conveniently left out, resulting in Noel showing everybody it was the 250k. In the interest of fairness (if this was genuine) he shouldn't have shown anybody, but he did because he was trying to turn the game into a miracle, just because the contestant was a priest.

Surely someone agrees?

People raising money for charity should go on a sponsored walk or something. Going on a TV gambling show is inappropriate and spoils it for the viewers.



The church is one of the richest organisations in existance. What do they need a big payout from DOND for?

The Banker has offered £666 before on a few occasions. While that figure is Walter P Smyth's (Aussie DoND's Banker) trademark figure and is often used on his early offers.

Remember, Noel revealed the £250,000 card "before" the boxes were mixed up. Assuming there is only one card for each amount, then Noel is revealing the correct amount.

It's not different actually. You literally cannot say anything in a TV show anymore that is deliberately misleading whether money is invovled or not. Look at "Homes under the hammer" they had to apologise and even put an explanation online for showing people bidding from a different auction. It didn't hurt anyone, but it was false and so had to be apologised for. Deal has an independent adjudicator and no-one else knows where the money is. It's that simple.

I assumed they took david box away to have a new amount put in it, if they did they sure like the £15,000 as massimo had that in his box when they had to reshuffle.

David said that the Church he uses is poor, therefore he came on to try and raise some money!


At the end of the day, he came on. Yes, some people may disagree that he shouldn't have, but he came on. It spoilt nothing for me, or my family.

Did he have box three? My Sky+ shows a stagehand carrying that box away. So yes, they shuffled his box too.

You have a point. I would also add that as they actually knew what was in the box they should have just played on. The £250k couldn't have been anywhere else, none of the other boxes were affected and it would not have affected the eventual outcome of the original game.

It does seem like it was especially generous to give him a second chance at the £250k because he was a priest playing for charity. Really it wasn't necessary at all.

Mind you after all that he still blew it.

It seems the independent adjudicator doesn't even know where the money is these days.

Lol! True!

I found today's show very interesting - what with the whole box shuffling thing. I knew it was going to happen due to reading about it, but I didn't know how they'd deal with it, and it was very much like the Boxgate incident in Massimo's game. Except this time we had it confirmed what was in the box which was "at fault"!

I suspected a third-offer deal as he seemed to be spending a long time dithering over it, and playing on would've been wise. I can see why he dealt however. And I think Noel didn't go on a full guilt trip as he seemed rather embarrassed by what had happened with the box...

That wing seems cursed, first it was sam box that had nothing in it, then tom and his box and now kirsty.

Don't suppose it means anything but it's pretty obvious they have more than one quantity of value board. Which means they could have easily dug up another 250k board and made out that he was getting a really good opportunity to go for it again - when infact it could have been anywhere.

Didn't make a difference anyway as he dealt

I didn't see this game live today.. I just watched it on Sky+..

..But I must say that it is HIS game to do whatever he wanted.. After seeing Matty's game fall apart by 'just' going that 'one extra' round.. I think he was just being grateful for being given £12.5k and didn't wanna throw it away. Regardless of the board. We ALL know that good boards can turn bad in one round.

If he had said 'no deal' and gone on.. and then the next 3 boxes were 3 of the largest reds - then his game would have collapsed. Instantly.

Games can go either of TWO ways and he knew that was entirely possible.

Now, I am NOT defending him for that decision, as I personally would have gone on - regardless of risk as it would have created a more suspenseful game with the possibility of winning massive money.

But after all, he knows from experience that greed can hurt you - and he didn't want to be greedy or ungrateful for what is obviously a massive amount of money for him and his church/charities.

As far as I am concerned HE has thousands of pounds in the bank now - and Matty doesn't. And we remember how sick Matty felt after his game turned upside down. "God! I feel soooo sick. Why didn't I deal when I had the chance?" he kept saying under his breath.

Now he has 1p. And David has £12,500.

So, not the most exciting or big winning games ever. But one that, for David anyway, ended happily. As a result, some very needy or poor/ill/deserving people now have a little money that they wouldn't have had if David had been greedy and lost it all.

Nuff said.

He Threw it away. And he did. By dealing. He was never going to throw it away by gambling. Or being normal and declining the 3rd offer.



Can do, but will not do every game and certainly today wasn't going to do with his odds.



That's possible but the odds are like under 5% or something very low. Which means 95% of the time you aren't going to take all 3 of the highest reds out. It has happened, but 675+ other game haven't.

You're telling me that every player should deal because of a tiny chance of collapse? When I say tiny, I mean below single figure percentages... maybe even less for the third round... ah i'll work it out.

3/11x2/10x1/9= 6/990... 0.6% That means 99.4% of the time the game will not collapse if i'm right?



Yep. They can. Except today the odds of it going 'totally the other way' were 0.6%. What brainless moron would seriously consider that a too higher percentage to deal?



Fair nuff.



Well today greed wouldn't have hurt him. Both with and without hindsight.



Infact, his biggest loss come from the £50,000 swap. Which shows that in a normal game the OPW would have come from the box on the table. He was unlucky to lose.

This could show the system she seals the boxes... She could start at 1p, then pick a ball out of the bag and that is stuck in the box corresponding to the number.

I suspect the reason why they had to reshuffle or start again and not continue with the game is there was the slim chance that there could have been something wrong with one of the other boxes.

If, for whatever reason, an amount was left out of one of the other boxes too then there would have been no way of knowing which amount was in which box.

So although there was a very slim possibility that there could have been a problem with another box, that chance was still there. Because of that, the only fair options were to reshuffle or start again.