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Betting Shop Despatches.
Despite what people say, it is perfectly possible to get people interested racing and betting. Take my mate Mick. He’s in his 40s, a bit of a hippie, a musician and a civil servant. He saw me poring over the Post one day, expressed an interest and very quickly became a regular punter. He favours coincidence bets and has won more than me every day for weeks. While I slavishly study form and ratings, looking for good value, he opens up the paper, picks a name he likes – yesterday’s was Clovis, Coq Hardi among others – puts on his bets, doesn’t bother to watch the race and then goes and collects his winnings, while I back dodos, flick screwed up betting slips at the screen and play my long running existential game with Ryan Moore – back him, he loses; don’t back him, he wins: it’s a very simple and compelling game I play with the invisible forces of the universe.
It’s fascinating to watch someone in their honeymoon period with racing: the joy, the optimism, the sheer air-punching glee of a good winner. On the rare occasions he does watch a race, he stands tall in the middle of Corals II (Corals I is down the street and is a sort of Colditz of betting shops in my area: the place where those barred from other shops congregate) among the jeering, crowing, hooting, swearing punters, the sick men of the betting shop, the degenerates, the lifers and the self-harmers of punting, and his face sports a happy smile as his long shot wins or gains the frame. Meanwhile, I go to the counter with an each-way double in a trixie, only to find it void because a non-runner took the second race down to a field of seven. I curse the sheer small-minded, greedy, tricksiness of bookmaker rules. Mick collects his winnings.
Long may it continue, I say. There are signs and contraindications, of course, that the bug could mutate and produce familiar symptoms: a vicious circle of obsession, compulsion, loss of control, rage, bitterness, cynicism and poverty. At the moment the symptoms are limited to the occasional brief, brooding sulk after a loss or a missed opportunity. Gently, I quote my warning philosophy about racing: ‘of all the ways man has devised to drive himself insane in the form of recreation, gambling on horseracing is one of the most potent and effective.’
But Mick, good on him, just keeps punting – and winning. He is as yet untouched by that mixture of pathos and pathology best summarised by the scene in Corals II at close of play each day: deserted, chairs upended, a blizzard of discarded betting slips, with an aggregate of pens, paper cups and fast food containers mixed in; the last cartoon race belting away on the screen and, against the wall, the sentry line of F.O.Bs blinking and winking, mouths open, ready for tomorrow.Is there such a thing as free sports betting? I heard there are websites for free sports betting but I’m not sure. I would really like to start free sports betting. Has anyone made a lot of money? I know free sports betting exists because my neighbor at school has done it, but now that the semester is over he is gone. Please send me answers about free sports betting if you have them.
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