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Howard Beale reports from clean Sweden
GODAMMIT
I am not going to take it any more
Get off the slots
and head for the door
treat your RSI
and give to the poor
Book into an NHS
turn on sister Mel
cry and confess
there in her room
just yell and tell
you’ll get your three bells
and a much better tune
leave the bookies tentacles
to rot in hell
You head down and snooze as
they clean the government loosWhitbread runs
Betfair slips
Google spies
the bookies must..
I….. want my money back
2-5 days.
Yes Sir, we have a 14 day cooling off period to decide if you want a full refund on the product. Keep your receipt and have a nice day.
FAIR WAGERING AUSTRALIA (OR UK EVEN)
FAIRNESS FOR ALL WAGERING PARTICIPANTSRichard Irvine (Edited)
"Racing punter Richard Irvine has been in the media recently with appearances in the Sydney Morning Herald, Today Tonight and the ABC’s Radio National. Writing for Fair Wagering Australia and supporting our quest for fairness, Irvine expands on the huge issue of Australian online bookmakers banning winners and betting only losing clients.
Interestingly, Cormac Barry inadvertently admitted the ruthless approach of Sportsbet on Four Corners. Whilst giving reporter, Marian Wilkinson, a tour of Sportsbets plush headquarters trading floor he commented that his team of “analysts” spend their days “monitoring customer behaviour, monitoring customer bets and looking for patterns in their bets”.
This admission by Cormac Barry is actually the modus operandi for virtually all the corporate bookies in Australia. Gone are the days where if you were an analyst for a corporate bookie you would spend your days analysing the odds of a horse or sporting teams chance of winning an event.
Now, due to the reach of the Internet, corporate bookies sit back and copy odds from other betting markets and bookmakers all over the world. They then let all their losing clients bet off those markets.
The analysts then trawl through all bets on these markets looking for punters who back winners or worse still have a bet at the top of the market (where the odds shorten after their bet). When these punters with an edge are found they are shown the door.
The old school skills of bookmaking are lost on the new breed of corporates. As business men and women they obviously have acumen, but as bookmakers they can only be considered as lazy, passive and talentless.
With the reasonable amount of media coverage I have received, the corporate bookies, when asked to comment in response to my claims have mostly ignored the requests or used the same disappointing, embarrassing line, “we ban a very small amount of professional punters to protect the odds for our valued recreational gamblers”.
Firstly, the vast majority of the “very small amount of punters” they ban are not pros, just recreational punters who spend a bit of time working out what horse, dog, etc. to back, and hence find an edge. Often they are punters who will bet small amounts like $20.
Secondly, the bookies don’t care at all about preserving odds for their recreational gamblers; they care for their recreational punters as long as they’re long term losers. That’s the embarrassing aspect of their comment – that they “care” for their recreational punters. If they care for their punters why don’t they let them win if they are good enough, especially considering that is the product they offer for sale, the opportunity to win money?
Corporate bookies in Australia have a peak body, the Australian Wagering Council. After much media pressure the AWC released a statement on the issue of banning punters saying –
“Bookmakers will occasionally decline bets placed by professional gamblers. This is because their bets can distort a betting market. In such instances, the odds change, meaning average punters get worse value. Bookmakers protect the interests of average punters by restricting bets from a professional. Roughly one in every 10,000 bets is declined.
Take a typical horse race, for example. Lots of people may want to stake $10 or $20 on the favourite at odds of, say $5. If a professional gambler comes in and backs the same horse with a $5,000 bet, the odds could be reduced to $3.50. The bookmaker may restrict or decline the bet from the professional punter, so the majority of their customers get a fair deal, rather than get short-changed with worse odds.”
This statement is an insult to the intellect of all Australian punters.
My response to this statement is as follows –
The bookies the AWC represent feel they can go against rules that have been in place for over a century for on-course bookmakers. On-course bookies are obligated to bet all comers to ensure a fair marketplace for all. Australia’s leading racing regulators and politicians have installed and maintained this practice for all of time.
Also, if bookies were to lay $20k/$5k in a bet from a pro and be forced to shorten the odds to $3.50, wouldn’t the bookie then push the odds of other horses out creating value for recreational punters on other horses? Or would they just leave all other horses the same price and have even more percentage in their favour? I think they would push the other horses out. That is how bookmaking works. Punters love fixed price markets because they move all the time. It’s all part of the fun of fixed price bookmaker betting.
Amazingly as their turnover grew, the NT Government saw fit in 2010 to reduce their turnover tax. Admittedly, they reduced their tax in the face of competition from Tasmania trying to lure the bookmakers down to the Apple Isle. Tasmania offered bookies a deal where their turnover tax would be capped at $258,000. The NT Govt. shot back with a cap of $250,000. They all stayed.
This tax concession meant the NT Government went from receiving $11.3 million in 2009 in tax to a paltry $2.35 million in 2012. In the same period the bookies turnover grew by $1 billion from $4.7 billion to $5.7 billion. Yep, that’s right, grew by a billion to $5.7 billion.
Mind you, when Ladbrokes, the biggest bookie in the world, opens for business here and some punters are not even allowed to open an account with them because one of their industry experienced bookmakers has recognised their name (yep, that happened to me), it is hard to have much sympathy for them if they fail. They’re a $2.7 billion company though, I’m sure they will be okay no matter how their down under experience turns out for them.
If they need something to compare it to they could ask the Australian Stock Exchange. The ASX appoint market makers like Macquarie Bank to their derivatives market. Market makers are bookmakers of the financial markets. Market makers are obliged to transact with any investor who wishes to place a derivative trade with them. If they refused someone’s custom, they would be hauled before ASIC and be in serious trouble. It all sounds familiar, right? Right up until the bit about being hauled before the industry regulator."
http://fairwageringaustralia.com/2013/1 … e-horizon/
PS Paddy Power the latest of the non-bookmakers to warn of £multi-million profit reductions caused in truth by an inability to risk manage its books by employing expert price setters and refusing to bet with about 20% of recreational punters that may have had a few wins in a while. The company said that it now expects a lot lower growth in operating profits in 2013, meaning they will come in around €11m (£9.2m) lower than "the mid-point of our guidance" given in August.
Mick McDermott has published a book "Speaking With Forked Tongues" that describes the sad state of affairs of modern bookmakers not taking bets even at their own advertised prices.
One new account was closed even before the single bet placed had even run.He gives evidence of accounts closed or restricted to pennies and describes the actions of the very worst bookmakers of a very bad bunch. Similarly for the vested interests of the racing media who criticises all other aspects of racing except bookmaking, where they re-spout the bookmaker PR garbage as gospel. The Gambling Commission is confirmed as being as much use as the proverbial chocolate teapot.
It makes for grim reading and a death knell for the various websites and rating services offering to help punters win at horseracing when they fully realise that any suggested bets can never be placed by any punter with an IQ exceeding 20.
If interested in book (£11:50)contact Mick at mickmcdermott79@outlook.com
Broadcaster Alan Jones had an important interview with Richard Irvine about the refusal of UK and other bookmakers from UK to take bets in Australia.
Unlike UK where scams and exploitation are the expected norm for an uneducated and passive public, they recognize this as a major scandal.
If you think they don’t close accounts of recreational punters, share information between fellow bookmakers of banned punters and their financial details (illegal) and avoid paying tax to the host country or racing then have a listen to:
Thanks for the link Sir , pretty shocking stuff , but then again we all suspected as much , the best advice given was just dont bet with them!!!
Its only a matter of time before punters wise up in Australia , will they do so here ….no chance whatsoever , and why is that ??….because our funding is based on losing , losing is therefore good …if you get my drift
imo
Another link exposing the scams and refusal to take bets of UK arcade and internet bookmakers:
Another link exposing the scams and refusal to take bets of UK arcade and internet bookmakers:
What a pair of thoroughly unpleasant individuals.
Everyone who works for bookmakers is "scum", "vermin" or "corrupt", those who play FOBT’s are "stupid" and "idiots" and they spoke with contempt about "pensioners doing Round Robins" in betting shops and staff who "sit on their arses all day long".
I pretty much tuned out when Tweedle-Dum said "why should they be dependent on machines to fund racing?" which says everything.
Didn’t get to the end of it (who has?) but I presume the rest was a continuation of playground name-calling and whining self-pity.
Mike
Rather agree; they neither do themselves, nor punters in general, nor their ostensibly worthwhile subject any favours at all with such invective-strewn opinionated cynicism
For their solicitors’ sake I feel they might have been wise to chuck in a liberal smattering of ‘allegedlys’ to garnish the ‘bollocks’
The balls are in your court Messrs. Bookmaker…
At least someone has the go in them to do something.
One petition being organised:
Petitioning UK Gambling Commission
Implement Bookmaker FairplaySecret Betting Club
Petition by
Secret Betting Club
To ensure that all punters are treated fairly, the Bookie Fairplay Campaign is lobbying for 2 proposals to be introduced by bookmakers, namely:1) Bookmakers must accept stakes of at least £20 on any bet they advertise either online or in print media from all punters.
2) Bookmakers to provide a clear warning to all new customers that they may have their accounts closed or limited in stakes if they are considered unprofitable.
This campaign is lobbying the UK Gambling Commission and the Association of British Bookmakers to introduce both these proposals as standard by all bookmakers.
To:
UK Gambling Commission, Bookmaker Complaints Department
Association of British Bookmakers, Bookmaker Complaints Department
Implement Bookmaker Fairplay,I support the campaign for Bookmaker Fairplay and am backing calls for 2 new proposals to be introduced by all bookmakers, namely that:
1) Bookmakers must accept stakes of at least £20 on any bet they advertise either online or in print media from all punters.
2) Bookmakers to provide a clear warning to all new customers that they may have their accounts closed or limited in stakes if they are considered unprofitable.
The reason I am backing this campaign is I feel unfairly treated by bookmakers that refuse to take my bet, limit the stakes I can get on and close my account, simply because I am considered unprofitable.
I also believe it is extremely misleading for a bookmaker to advertise a bet both online and in print media and to not allow all punters to stake at least £20.
Such restrictions and account closures are especially unfair, when taking into consideration the record profits many bookmakers are making from Fixed Odds Betting Terminals. Genuine punters like myself are being treated extremely unfairly and mislead by inaccurate advertising.
I call upon your organisation to investigate these problems and take note of the weight of support behind this campaign for bookmaker fairplay.
Sincerely,
[Your name]USA HANA are not taking Churchill Downs hike in Tote takeout. A betting boycott proposed is now being actioned. Better than just pointlessly moaning on Forums and expecting someone else somehow to make things change for the better.
"Press Release: 9 of 10 Horseplayers Association of North America Members Polled Show Support for a Boycott of Churchill Downs Inc. Tracks & Assorted Properties; Action Commences
A poll of Horseplayer Association of North America (HANA) members revealed that 90.2% of respondents will be withholding either some or all of their dollars from Churchill Downs Inc. racetracks – Churchill Downs, Arlington, Fair Grounds and Calder Race Course – wagering platform Twinspires.com and past performance provider Brisnet.com.
This poll result is in response to Churchill Downs Inc. increasing their takeout rates by over 9% on the win, place a show pools and almost 16% on exotic pools at their Louisville, KY racetrack. The takeout increase was put in place April 26th and will continue for the rest of the meet.
The poll also showed that only 8.5% of respondents believe that this is only a one-track phenomenon. 42.8% believe Churchill Downs Inc. will raise prices at their other tracks, and an additional 48.7% believe that other non-Churchill Downs Inc. tracks will follow with rate hikes.
"The Board of Directors was struck by the anger this past week on social media and our email from rank and file horseplayers, so we commissioned a survey of members." said HANA President Jeff Platt. "The survey confirmed that current HANA membership had a similar discontent and they’ve urged us to move forward."
Although HANA will be working on partnerships with various groups, an advertising program, and a social media push to increase support for a boycott of all Churchill Downs Inc. properties, the Association of over 2,500 horseplayers believes the success or failure of the effort will lie with customers.
"Large gaming corporations like Churchill Downs Inc. are extremely well funded, but we do not underestimate the power of an educated customer. We ask customers to share this action with their friends and fellow horseplayers," said Platt.
A list of Advance Deposit Wagering companies and figure/past performance makers is being compiled, so customers who wish to switch from Churchill Downs Inc. properties can complete their due diligence. HANA, as is its custom, will not be endorsing or recommending any of these products or services.
The Horseplayers Association of North America will keep both members and non-members informed on its blog, twitter feed, Facebook page and via email as warranted. Customers are also encouraged to visit http://www.playersboycott.org for more information.
Further results from the member poll and the above mentioned list will be released next week on the Horseplayers Association blog.
"What support are you willing to show a boycott, as a HANA member":
I will stop all play and purchases at Churchill Downs Inc. tracks and properties – 39.94%
I will stop some play and purchases at Churchill Downs Inc. tracks and properties – 50.31%
I will continue to play all Churchill Downs Inc. racetracks and properties like I always have – 9.75%"Letter from South Africa.
It seems to be the same old, same old:"Philip Goldberg: Tale Of An Ordinary Punter
In any other business I would be considered a good customer.
Last updated on May 28th, 2014“I am one of the ninety five percent that don’t take anything out of the game. For close on forty years I have been punting horses every day. In any other business, I would be considered a good and loyal client. In horseracing it works differently. They don’t even know my name and are clueless when it comes to knowing what makes me tick.”
Accountant Philip Goldberg is a horseracing addict and an ‘ordinary punter’ in his own words.
A well known face in betting outlets on the Cape West Coast, he has had his fair share of good and bad fortune, but says that he is concerned that horseracing is doomed to extinction if we continue on the current path.
He has called on Saftote to introduce an environment where more people win rather than fancy marketing tricks with telephone number dream figures.
What is your name?
Philip Goldberg ,aka Kingpin
How old are you?
Racing has aged me. I am only rated 48 on paper.
Where did you grow up?
Next door to Milnerton Racecourse, which was as close to heaven as I could get. Well in those days it was, anyway.
Where were you educated?
Herzlia , UNISA and UCT.
What is your occupation?
I am an Accountant by qualification but racing is my life and keeps me far too busy to do anything else full time. So I found a happy medium and started a tipping service in 2005.
It is called Kingpin and I currently have a client base of 500. My phone rings endlessly with happy and hard luck stories.
My role also amounts to a form of counselling. A sort of Punters Anonymous’ a lot of the time as I answer questions and deal with racing related queries from Tellytrack coverage, to crooked jockeys to scratchings. These peripheral services are all free!
How long have you been interested in racing?
My father was a fanatic (and still is) and I started when I was at crèche. While the other kids played hide and seek, I was playing commentators and bookmakers.
How were you introduced to the game?
Family interest is the catalyst that triggered my generation’s interest in most cases.
Racing was a bonding passion. It was like listening to Squad Cars and the Men From The Ministry. It was something that families could do together. The Cape Hunt amateur racing also played a role in fostering a love of the game.
My Mom even used to take a syndicate jackpot of the ladies in the office at the Big Four in Loop Street every Saturday morning. Everybody put ten cents in. And the Met and July sweeps were events. Those were the days!
Do you think that young people are being properly marketed these days?
Gosh, no. Bringing a couple of half drunk, fashion conscious testosterone charged under 23’s to big racedays to listen to some band none of us have ever heard of is like flying to the Moon with a half a tank of petrol. It is not sustainable.
It just makes racing look glam for a few hours.
The following day, the diehards are back toteside doing their lives and the youngsters are sleeping off hangovers or sitting at Shimmy Beach Club or Caprice or some other fashionable joint.
How often do you punt?
Every solitary day.I would need to be hospitalised to miss it. Thank heavens for telebet, as there are times people of my age need to go to hospital for the odd day.
Why did you start a tipping service?
I started it as a source of income and to allow me to work in racing when I realised that I was never going to be an executive in this industry. So studying form became work and I get to keep my pulse on the heartbeat of the game. I have met some great people through it.
My customer is mostly the smaller guy who gets treated like you know what by the operators.
Tell us about your tipping service?
It is sms and email based and we have varying options to suit every pocket.
We have a loyal core client base that have been with us almost a decade now. They live in De Aar and Koekenaap and beyond.
I used to specialise on the UK racing but thanks to the Tellytrack mess that sector has been badly hit.
How has racing changed?
The usual excuse is that it is no longer the only game in town.
But if all of our modern day distractions were so magnetic, then how has soccer grown so much?
We just haven’t kept pace through a combination of bad management and a lack of passion where it really counts. There are too many talkers and too few doers.
The whole transparency charade has also created a false sense of information, I believe. What happened to the genuine street corner tip for example? All Tellytrack do is interview the big trainers who give us the usual political nod.
We also want to hear from the Stan Ferreira’s and Barend Botes’ of this world.
bad-customer-service-cartoonDoes racing look after its customers?
Don’t make me laugh. Give me the name of one lobby or individual who is batting for the customer. There is no such animal.
In the totes, which are still the shopfront for the mass market, the environment is dirty, there is little information available, the furniture is usually on a par with a Government Hospital waiting room and the majority of staff look like they have just lost a close friend.
Never once have I left a tote and been greeted with a ‘hope to see you soon.’
Does the game need a loyalty programme?
Now you are talking! Most definitely it does. Gold Circle tried in vain a few years ago but messed it up and wasted a million rand on a disaster.
Any competitive environment needs to reward customers. Ask the banks.Ask the retailers.
Look at what happens to us on Met day. We have to pay R200 to sit in the sun and drink warm beers while the one off’s enjoy all the trappings.
That is unworkable and unrealistic. And a sure fire way to alienate the customer.
What are your thoughts on the recent Tellytrack blackout?
A debacle and a disgrace, frankly.
It only served to illustrate the great divide between management and customers. They thought that we would just continue punting blindly. They have to realise that we don’t punt on cockroaches in the dark. We want entertainment and love to see and feel the excitement.
And they have compounded the debacle in the manner it has been handled from a PR viewpoint since.
Is the racing show well co ordinated?
I have never understood why Tellytrack would show Haydock and yet Lingfield is a venue for the maxipool Jackpot on the same day.
That means Tellytrack are not talking to Saftote. Or vice versa. A typical left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.
Then we had Mike De Kock slinging off about the 2yo programme after Forries Waltz won on Saturday.
Is De Kock talking nonsense or is the programme a disgrace? Who knows? Does anybody care? They are wary of him, but what’s the bet nothing changes?
Do carryovers excite you as a punter?
Naturally they do. But there is a perception, real or imagined, that we are being bulldusted by Saftote. That is our money, we play every day, so when a pool is carried over, make it available to be won the next day.
At the moment they are carrying confusing sums over to big racedays. That principle is okay, but make it a percentage carryover to Met day and July day etc. Not the whole lot.
And don’t just create smoke and mirrors. Punters are real people, We live in the now. We want to win today.
And we would love to understand whether there is a takeout on the carryover pools? Please ask them that!
What do you feel about the range of bet options?
Disastrous and stupidly complicated! There are too many choices.
The game needs to be about winning and not the degree of difficulty. So why take away the couplings in the Pick Six, as one example?
You have a market that is disenchanted and largely treated badly, and then you help them lose rather than win by making things difficult.
What are the chances of losing business?
And to brag,as Saftote do, about jackpots paying an average of R20 000 means that something is badly wrong. It is supposed to be the brain game.
The Bipot has also merely served to pull money out of the other exotics in my opinion.
If you were made CEO of Phumelela for a month what would you do?
I would start by acknowledging that racing pools have not kept pace with inflation and admit that we have a serious problem.
I would then take my executive team and senior management out to meet punters in the totes.At the same time I would check if the executives have a telebet. How can you be a movie critic if you don’t go to bioscope?
This game is about the TAB and not the TBA. If horses only cost R30 000 each the hardcore would still be playing fractional PA’s on Fairview.
Sports betting income streams are all well and good, but it is the horses that got us hooked in the first place.
And when the big boys sit on television and tell us about the new bets, maybe stop patronising and talking about ‘us’, ‘us’, ‘us’.
It should be about the customer."
Gambler banned from bookies for winning too much
. 8:30am Monday 2nd June 2014 in News By Ben Leo .
.
The Argus: John Harrison, (holding letter) outside William Hill bookmakers in London Road, Brighton, with his friendsThe Argus: The letter
..
A GAMBLER claims he has been banned from a high street bookmakers because he wins too much.John Harrison, 56, of Canfield Road, Brighton, received a letter from William Hill asking him not to return to any of the firm’s shops across the country.
Mr Harrison believes he received the letter, titled Trading Review Notice, because he has proven to be a profitable punter at the company’s London Road branch in Brighton.
He said: “I used to be a mug gambler, giving away my wages every week. But it’s only since I’ve become good at what I do on horses and dogs that I’ve been told I’m not allowed back in the shop.
“They don’t want winners. I’ve done nothing wrong apart from showing a consistent level of profit through my betting and they don’t like that.”
The letter, sent on May 19, said the firm “no longer wishes to accept” Mr Harrison’s bets following a “review of trading arrangements”.
It continues: “In the event that you succeed in gambling with us, we reserve the right to make any such bet void.”
A spokesman from William Hill said Mr Harrison was not banned because he showed a profit, but for “other reasons” they declined to reveal.
Mr Harrison, who claims he gambles professionally, said: “There are no other reasons other than they don’t want winning customers. I don’t play with huge stakes.
“But even when I try and put £50 on a horse in the shop they have to call up their traders and check it’s OK.
“They come back and then tell me I can only have £2 or something silly. But now I’ve been banned entirely.”
Mr Harrison said bookmaker’s shops had “now become arcades” and bookmakers preferred people playing virtual roulette on Fixed Odd Betting Terminal (FOBT) machines instead.
He added: “That’s why they don’t take bets anymore. They’d rather people waste their wages on the machines than take normal bets on the football, horses or dogs”.
Matt Zarb-Cousin, of the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, said: “Betting used to be the punter versus the bookie, but now bookmakers are fixated on FOBTs: fixed margin casino machines where, in the long run, the house always wins.
“They don’t want anyone gambling with them who has a chance of even breaking even – let alone winning – which is why they place restrictions on over the counter bets, or ban winning customers.
“Under law gambling has to be fair and open, but the truth about how bookmakers operate today has been withheld from politicians for too long.”
A spokesman from William Hill said: “It’s nothing to do with showing profit. Mr Harrison and his friends are not the type of people we want in our shops.”
If not already seen this there is a petition organised with respect to UK bookmaking practices:
Many may do nothing and expect others to sort things for them but if you agree and want to support at least a protest at the way you are being treated sign at:
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/p … ps-betting
Petitioning Paul Darling, Chairman, Association of British Bookmakers 2
We call on the Chairman of the ABB to initiate a public investigation into the strategy of their members refusing business on what should be the primary activity in their shops – betting.
Petition by
Speaking with Forked Tongues
It is unacceptable for betting shops and betting operators to continually close customer accounts and decline or restrict wagers for horse and sports betting whilst allowing unrestricted cash acceptance on electronic casino games in the same shops.
The dominance of gambling on electronic casino machines (Fixed Odds Betting Terminals or FOBTs), which should be an ancillary product to the primary activity of betting in shops, has resulted in over 9,000 high street mini casinos that no longer want to take on genuine customers who enjoy the sport of horse racing.
The impact of this strategy is taking money away from horse racing via the levy and we call on Paul Darling, the Chairman of the Association of British Bookmakers, to initiate an urgent public inquiry into this issue.
Examples of what the betting industry is up to are listed here…
FOBT players attack betting shops
Bookies link staff wages to machines
Bookies ban customer for winning
A guy from the company called to say they were banning me from betting on horse racing because I am ‘too good
A few weeks ago, a customer went into a betting shop in west London to have a flutter ..
To:
Paul Darling, Chairman, Association of British Bookmakers, Warwick House 25 Buckingham Palace Road London SW1W 0PPWe call on the Chairman of the ABB to initiate a public investigation into the strategy of their members refusing business on what should be the primary activity in their shops – betting.
Sincerely,
[Your name]Supporters
Reasons for signing
· Most Popular
· LatestStuart Aitken EAST KILBRIDE, UNITED KINGDOM
· 1 day ago
· Liked 1Sick of being restricted by likes of Boylesports Betfred Paddy Power whilst constantly hearing of them taking bets of thousands from their PR spokesperson.its a joke.i won 225 from boylesports and they closed my account.
lyall robertson MUSSELBURGH, UNITED KINGDOM
· 1 day ago
· Liked 1because of the misleading way bookmakers sell their product, all their advertising leans towards selling the dream that you win whereas in reality if you show that you are price sensitive and have a chance of winning you are restricted to stakes which are pitiful
stuart gray ALSAGER CHESHIRE, UNITED KINGDOM
· 1 day ago
· Liked 1Over time I have had every single bookmaker account of mine either closed or heavily restricted for no other reason other than the fact I am not a mug punter who likes to throw his money away or in a machine I would rather study form and pick my wits against an odds compiler.
Can somebody please tell me then in what other business can such unfair discriminatory practices which take place by the bookmaking industry be allowed to exist and go unchallenged.
I would like to make an analogy.
Imagine for a moment the public backlash if Tescos advertised a product for sale at a fixed price and then Joe public thought ok i’ll pop down to Tescos and buy one of those items advertised at that fixed price only to be told by Tescos staff that you are not a profitable enough customer for them to sell you what you came in for but you are quite welcome to buy something else that suits Tescos i.e. there equivalent to FOBTS or SP you would be astounded at the injustice and contempt shown by Tescos and I’m sure there would be universal condemnation over such unfair practice and rightly so yet this is exactly what is happening to ordinary people every day by British bookmakers and goes on virtually unreported and without any recriminations at all.
Who if anyone is standing up for the rights of the betting man?
Who do we turn to do?
Do we have a right to have a voice?
Myself and many other people believe that yes we do have a right to have our opinions heard.
I know I speak for many when I say FOBT’S or Cocaine machines as they are more accurately referred to are a cancer that wrecks lives and attract some of the most vulnerable in society and should be banned from the high street on grounds of morality and social responsibility.
I really hope this petition which is a great idea by Mick raises some eyebrows and draws attention to the authorities of the sharp practices which bookmakers are lending themselves to bookmakers have become way too powerful and self governing and that needs to challenged and addressed immediately.
damien field BRADFORD, UNITED KINGDOM
· 1 day ago
· Liked 1Because i used to have a problem with gambling, untill i realised how bad there FOBT’s are and how can they let people put £1000’s of pounds through there machines, but won’t let you bet £100 on a sports bet.
shirley wheeler EXETER, UNITED KINGDOM
· about 2 hours ago
· Liked 0To many people are getting into debt using machines like these.
More Reasons 2
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