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Scenario: A friend of a friend, bets regularly and successfully. So much so that he has to travel wide and far in order to place his perfectly legal bets with different bookmakers. The nature of his bets is that they often have to be cleared with Head Office and stakes limited or refused.
Recently, he visited one of the major high street shops and as he was submitting his bet to the assistant, who had the shop diary open, just by chance he happened to notice a CCTV photograph of himself in the book. When he asked the assistant about the image she quickly closed the diary and refused to explain.
Has anyone heard of similar practices please and is it lawful to be holding onto a CCTV image when it’s purpose is not crime-related?
KenI remember when working for Stanley’s in the North West in the late 1980s and laughing at some of the language used to describe ‘big-punters.’ Obviously at that time there was no cctv footage but staff were encouraged to ‘log’ the bets and activity of winning punters.
One day I was asked to go and work in a different shop to my usual one. I opened up, met the staff and started getting sorted when one of the staff said to me in a daft whisper – ‘aye, aye, watch out here’s the Racing Post man.’
I looked up and saw a friend of mine. We had a quick chat and spoke about meeting up with a mutual friend later in the week. The pleasantries completed he turned to one of the cashiers and inquired – ‘can I have a look at the Racing Post please?’
The cashier nodded at me in a very smug way and told me he always asked for a copy of the Racing Post which was held behind the counter. I looked at the so-called big bets book and noticed that he’d had £50 on Barnbrook Again when it won at 2/1. Must admit, made me chuckle seeing a friend’s nom de plume written down in a book.
Some of the other names in the ‘big-bets’ books weren’t so pleasant…
Anyway Ken,is there anything in the Freedom of Information Act that would cover the case with your friend?
Thanks for that Reason. Seems the ‘blacklist’ has been around a while then. I’m wondering if they’ve got me down anywhere and what they call me? Wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t "loser"!
Coral have to monitor all bets of £200+, I know that
Any punter who regularly bets £100+ also gets monitored.
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Coral have to monitor all bets of £200+, I know that
Any punter who regularly bets £100+ also gets monitored.Keyword "regularly".
Pros have two or three bets per month.
Pictures are taken of people as they go into casinos so I suppose that is similar. They have security staff wandering round with a big book of peoples photographs (presumably a blacklist,) trying to spot them amongst the evening’s punters.
What about the punters who walk into betting shops on Grand National day and put £10k bets on? Do they get monitored?
Coral have to monitor all bets of £200+, I know that
Any punter who regularly bets £100+ also gets monitored.Correct. All punters who bet over £200 are monitored; though, the £100 plus is no longer applicable.
I have been reliably informed that photographs are logged of certain customers – but ONLY if that person is suspected of placing suspicious or ambiguously phrased bets.
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
Himself wrote..ONLY if that person is suspected of placing suspicious or ambiguously phrased bets
I see nothing wrong with having £500 on the Premiership Title to be won by MANCHELSEARSENAL.
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Keyword "regularly".
Pros have two or three bets per month.
How many pro’s do you know?? Obviously not many.
I have worked for various bookmakers including Hills, Stanleys and several independent bookies and logging customers is standard practice. Obviously now with CCTV it is far more sophisticated than in the past.
The kind of customers the big boys want is the yankee.lucky 15 merchants and they hate sizeable win and each way singles.
I also worked for a well known credit bookmaker and every shop knew every one of us that worked there and some of the subterfuge we had to use to get on was laughable. Most ordinary punters have no idea of the difficulty getting on if you are even mildly successful.
I had my ladbrokes credit account closed because of a £30 e/w double!! And that is just the tip of the iceberg.It is actually fun sometimes to get on when you are knwn in a shop or to a bookmaker!! Its all part of the game!
Himself wrote..ONLY if that person is suspected of placing suspicious or ambiguously phrased bets
I see nothing wrong with having £500 on the Premiership Title to be won by MANCHELSEARSENAL.
Oh don’t worry, we have your photo logged.
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
I don’t know the law on this so can’t answer the question but it certainly doesn’t seem right to me and could very well be illegal.
Clearly, we could all understand bookies having a picture of someone like the ‘Pencil Man’ or other known criminals but winning punters! What on earth is going on, they really are all a despicable bunch of gutless…….
Ken , I very much doubt that serious players bother with bookies shops now since the advent of Betfair , and even with the arrival of the dreaded premium charge ,there is still no contest
Bookies want the lucky 15 guys and the football coupon boys all day long …everyone else can head for the roulette machines ….which some shops have managed to double in numbers due to a simple glass panel
why oh why dont we just dump them
Ricky
pro punters still need the books for EW multi’s.
these are the bets that get you banned.
Any punter who regularly bets £100+ also gets monitored.
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