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The future is well laid out today in a recruitment ad in the Racing Post (it’s for Corals, but it could be any of them).
They are seeking a new class of employee to be called:
‘Machine Managers’
The whole thing is written in that bizarre ******* form of English used only by personnel (sorry, human resources) departments. I particularly liked –
"You should have some experience of managing external suppliers in a multi-site environment…"
No, I don’t know what that means, and more to the point, I doubt if any of the applicants will either.
Corals is described as "one of the fastest growing bookmakers in the UK", but that’s the only suggestion that anything other than a chain of high street casinos is the real business.
AP
The betting shop of the future will be run by a man and a dog.
The man to feed the dog and the dog to keep the man away from the machines.
They are going to need these machine managers to pay for their subs for Turf tv .. it’s a bit of a shame really because a day out in the bookies used to be a really good laugh.
They are going to need these machine managers to pay for their subs for Turf tv .. it’s a bit of a shame really because a day out in the bookies used to be a really good laugh.
Totally agree Dave.
Back as an unemployed 18 year old, I used to love my fix of going into the betting shop on an afternoon, and making £10 last the duration just by betting on the horses and sometimes the dogs.
Not a fruit machine in sight, just racing papers, a fascinating mix of faces, LOVE & HATE tatoo’d on the knuckles of the girl that took the bets, and a pork pie wedging the door open. Oh, and those were the days of tax, so if you only had £1 left, and you needed the 10p tax, all you needed to do was try the top of the main tv, where people used to leave their copper
Unfortunately for me these days, a trip to the bookies involves entering the shop, walking straight to the counter, placing my bets, and then straight out of the shop again.
Mike
Then feel for the poor buggers who set the shop up ready to open at 9.00, work behind the counter all day, then close at 9.30 p.m., cash up, do the accounts, tidy up the shop and get home by 10.30 if they’re lucky, and then go through the same thing the next day!!!!
Colin
Then feel for the poor buggers who set the shop up ready to open at 9.00, work behind the counter all day, then close at 9.30 p.m., cash up, do the accounts, tidy up the shop and get home by 10.30 if they’re lucky, and then go through the same thing the next day!!!!
Colin
Exactly Colin.
Going back to that same time I was talking about earlier, I used to wait outside the bookies waiting for it to open, sometime it didn’t open until 11am (it was just a local independent bookie), and it closed 5 minutes after the last afternoon race lol.
Mike
The thing I liked best about my local independent bookies shop (and we only had one where I lived at that time) was the ‘extel’ (was it ‘extel’?) commentary.
A month’s wages on a Henry Cecil favourite An excrutiating final furlong with no pictures, just the commentary, and those agonising final four words… ‘They’ve gone past together’ !!
Cue fifteen minute wait to see if I was skint (again) or if I was temporarily solvent.
Many years ago I worked in a few betting shops and it soon became apparent that with quite a few punters you would pay them out at one window and before two minutes had passed take their cash back for their next bet. Working on that side of the counter revealed how few people won anything other than small amounts.
Remember the "board men" they had in those days – presumably all long gone now?
I remember starting out as a board man.
The punters always tried to distract you as Extel gave over a new show of betting. If the price of a horse went out they would point out to the manager how useless you were missing the new show, but if the horse shortened then they could have the old show as that was what was still up on the board!
Oh how I miss the good old days!!
I always admired how the best board men were adept at using various marker pens for different purposes, eg to write the favourite’s odds in a different colour, and to remember it all when shows and results were coming thick and fast.
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