Placing a bet

[Janik]

Placing a bet

ursus arctos wrote: High Street Betting Shops were one of the most perplexing aspects of "British culture" that 16 year old ursus experienced on his first trip to the UK.

My sister got that when she made friends with a number of Americans during a year at Uni in Freiburg. That her summer job was working in the local bookies apparently totally failed to compute. Having not seen the British set-up, their view was something like this polite English girl has just openly admitted to working in organised crime.

AFAIK the situation back then (mid-90s) was nothing like as bad as that article makes it sound nowadays. She certainly never gave the sense that she was there on her own, or felt under physical threat.

[caja-dglh]

Placing a bet

If you asked me who went to bookies, I think my first person I could identify would be this guy.

[sw2borshch]

Placing a bet

It's not just Hartlepudlians.

[EIM]

Placing a bet

Dunno how you lot get through life sometimes.

[Gerontophile]

Placing a bet

As far as personally gambling goes: Grand National, did the lottery, quiz machines (if that can be called gambling), been to the greyhounds a few times, and really haven't bet much in Vegas. Nickel Keno (sort of bingo) in bars, and that's about it.

I wouldn't play the slots here as they are too complicated for me, and poker machines suck because they are draw poker (obviously) and I am shit at that.

I quite fancy trying the real bingo. It depends on the speed of the caller.

[Mr Beast]

Placing a bet

Hofzinser wrote: Bloody hell, compared to you lot, I'm a complete degenerate.

I used to bet quite a bit up until about 2003 but now have cut down to almost nothing. Horses are complex creatures and spread betting is far too dangerous.

[Efficient Baxter]

Placing a bet

Poor Andrew Iacovou was killed first thing in the morning. From my experience, Betting Shop Managers are always alone first thing in the morning until about 11 and have been for decades.

Risk is so much lower (fewer business hours means less money behind the counter) and it's daylight.

Miss X sounds much more typical though.

If betting shops are forced to remove single manning it wont be on security grounds, it will be on social responsibility grounds as checking people are not under age is one of the Gambling Commission's key items.

Checking people at machine is impossible if you are taking bets at counter.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Placing a bet

EIM wrote: Dunno how you lot get through life sometimes.

This has been on my mind a lot lately but it's nowt to do with betting or the lack thereof.

[Levin]

Placing a bet

I've never placed a bet in a bookies but I did work part time in Ladbrokes in Bradford whilst at uni (late 90s, early 00s. There were always two people in (three with me) but we needed the staff to handle everything.

I guess this would be before the FOBTs came in as we just had one or two fruit machines.

The majority of people in were regulars who would spend most of the day there placing 10p round robins (So £1.10 in total at a time).

I used to know loads of different ways of placing a bet but I've forgotten them now. Hardly anyone placed straight to win.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Placing a bet

Bloody hell, compared to you lot, I'm a complete degenerate.

I'm with Hof in the degenerate camp.

Ever since I was old enough, I put a few lines on every Saturday to make the results interesting.

When I was a student in Wolverhampton I did 10p a line, and now I'm a comfortable, childless lecturer it's £2.

I used to go to Shields Rd, Byker (my local high street) and the Ladbroke's staff knew my name and it was a jolly part of a Saturday.

Increasingly moved online (not just convenience, a couple of bad 'customer service' experiences - having to wait 40 minutes/go to 2 shops to get paid out; people failing to apologise when the shop is in error kinda thing).

But I don't bet in play, only bet on football/cycling (things I know something about) and the sweet memories of getting 5 draws up and watching them count it out keep me going week after week.

[jwdd27]

Placing a bet

Very good article.

I'm in the degenerate camp, but almost all online now, and very small bets, never more than £10 on any one thing and usually just a couple of quid.

I was a regular betting shop patron in the days of covered windows and smoke filled shops, filled with a crowd of knowledgable (although not necessarily friendly) punters. And in those days there always seemed to be 2, 3 or more staff - usually one or two to take bets and one to pay out.

My infrequent trips to bookies in recent years are in line with the article - there's only ever a couple of pensioners there for the racing, otherwise it's all about the machines, which are played by the mentally unstable and those with learning difficulties (often a bit of both).

Not sure what the solution is - the betting industry are powerful lobbyists, so it would be tough to get regulation through curbing opening hours or lowering the payout percentage or number of FOBTs. Local councils are getting more aggressive in trying to reduce numbers and concentration of bookies, but again the industry is powerful and has deep pockets.

Shit state of affairs, basically.

[My Name Is Ian]

Placing a bet

I managed a betting shop for three years in the late 1990s, and if they're claiming that single-manning them is a new phenomenon, they're bullshitting. It certainly happened when I worked there, because it was me that did it. Sometimes three or four days in a row. Fortunately, the shop I was stationed in didn't get any customers either, so I watched a lot of television, drank a lot of tea, smoked a lot of cigarettes, and had something of a golden period with the Independent crossword.

[Efficient Baxter]

Placing a bet

jwdidier27 wrote: Not sure what the solution is - the betting industry are powerful lobbyists, so it would be tough to get regulation through curbing opening hours or lowering the payout percentage or number of FOBTs. Local councils are getting more aggressive in trying to reduce numbers and concentration of bookies, but again the industry is powerful and has deep pockets.

Shit state of affairs, basically.

Well you say that but they are having their pants pulled down by a smaller single issue pressure group with even deeper pockets and who are more ruthless.

"lowering the payout percentage or number of FOBTs"

Whit? Make them less value for money so they take people's cash quicker?

"Local councils are getting more aggressive in trying to reduce numbers and concentration of bookies"

Local councils have never liked bookies. Which is why their planning used to be at Magistrates Court. And why the Gambling Act (2005) introduced a load of safeguards to stop local councils acting on a whim against the business.

The big problem was the Act also removed the Demands Test. Hitherto bookmakers had to prove their was untapped demand for a new shop in an area - but they usually got there after a couple of years in the court. After the 2005 Act they were free to open wherever they wanted, which had the unforeseen effect that the value of betting shops fell through the floor. In the past a betting shop licence held an intrinsic value because there was throttled supply. Now a big national bookmaker could open next door, take half the custom and just wait until your went bump.
Why you see very few small bookmakers anymore. Many just locked the doors and walked away without even selling up.

[Borracho]

Placing a bet

I'm about to have my biennial football bet, putting a few quid on somebody (probably Lewandowski or Muller) to be the top scorer in France. I never bet on anything the rest of the time, football or otherwise.

Betting shops seem like very dead, desolate places. You'd half expect a basic residue of some kind of camaraderie, but there isn't even that. God knows what they were like in the 1980s and 1990 before legislation cleaned them up to some degree.