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Now I guess many, if not most on here use the internet for their gambling, so perhaps might agree with the author. Anyway, here is Bryony Gordon’s (<i>Daily Telegraph</i>) blog account of her vist to a bookmaker to have a (losing) punt on the nags David Cameron tipped on the radio this week:-
… so off I trotted to the bookie’s. Being a middle-class woman of 29, I have only ever walked past such establishments before, and pretty hurriedly at that. But you’ve got to try everything once.
And here, in the bookie’s, is the other side of horse racing and gambling, a world away from those glossy Royal Ascot ads full of celebrities that are currently doing the rounds. Hidden behind the cheerful window signs offering odds on various sporting events is a world swimming in misery and White Lightning. Men on fruit machines at 10 in the morning, blokes scuttling dead-eyed to the counter, separated from the cashiers by bullet-proof glass.
Here, should you care to have a look – and I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t – are the losers of the gambling industry. The high-street bookie’s is a temple of despair; opening the door is like picking up a rock and watching as the woodlice and earwigs scuttle away. A bleaker picture right under your nose you would struggle to find.
The woman behind the counter looked at me curiously when I went to put my tenner on Midnight Fantasy and Daring Dream. I told her that the Prime Minister had tipped them. “Oh,” she said, uninterested. The horses didn’t win. And it occurred to me, as I went to leave, that whatever the Big Society is, they could do with some of it there.“…opening the door is like picking up a rock and watching as the woodlice and earwigs scuttle away.”
Some people might be offended by that. <!– s:shock: –>
<!– s:shock: –>Pleasure palace for me as I like to ask muppet staff questions…"What happens in a French race were two horses are coupled and the pacemaker wins, the bet is on the PMU?"……….answer..you get payed out on the winner! always place a 2nd fav e/w patent so you visit daily with another question, treat the staff with the same contept as you get from them.
There are exceptions, but I’d say from the times I’ve gone in to a highstreet bookmakers, she’s got it spot on.
I remember going in to watch the Irish Champion Hurdle. Hardy Eustace and Rooster Booster. Nobody else in the shop was interested in the race.
Value Is EverythingSadly the days of leather button backed armchairs as were once in hills park lane shop and heathorns throgmorton street are gone but i would like to suggest that the scene bryony thingy sets is more indicative of todays society as a whole not just the high street bookies, every shop on the high street seems to be filled of uninterested staff on minimum wage who couldnt give a fig about customer service.
I agree , she is spot on , its a sad scene , guys waiting their turn to play roulette , as the tannoy barks endless tedium about some other betting opportunity
It wasnt always this way , bookies used to be fun , and Horses were the main attraction , Hackney Wick on a sat morning as an appetiser, staff were damn interested and knowledgable , but alas that was before wall to wall racing and late /7 day opening and the advent of gaming machines
what a waste
Ricky
Smacks of a pompous stuck up bitch to me…get over yerself love!
Behind those windows is a real world full of real people doing what they want to. Who is she to look down her stuck up nose at them?
Given the choice of having a beer with one or the other I know who I would choose.
Yours
John a 33 year old male.
- Total Posts 17716
I don’t know how accurate her report is. Not once did she mention the local shoplifter selling his wares or the drug dealer toiling endlessly from a pew in the corner.
Don’t forget folks the clown that "found" Mr Cameron’s stolen pushbike was none other than a shoplifter and drug dealer named Popcorn operating from a bookie shop. He was busted in the William Hill shop in Portobello Rd weeks after returning the bike and helmet that Cameron had left "secured" to a 3ft high bollard outside the Tescos opposite. Cameron suggested at the time that the helmet should have been kept by Popcorn to be auctioned off on Ebay.
That’s one way to get the economy going Mr C!!!
ps – At 10am most people in the real world are nowhere near a bookie shop.
ps – At 10am most people in the real world are nowhere near a bookie shop.
Please explain that comment Chiswickian?
I regularly go at around that time and see and chat with a lot of decent people (mainly the older generation)
Are they, and me, not in the real world in your opinion?
- Total Posts 17716
Are you
most
people?
If you cannot accept that most people in the real world are nowhere near a bookie shop at 10am we have nothing further to discuss.
I can only speak from my own personal experience, and that is that
most
people I see in bookies shops at that time are decent people.
It makes me sick when people make a judgement of someone when they have absolutely no clue whatsoever what they are like.
It makes me even more angry when people like the author of the above article actually thinks they are a better person..
Love Bryony’s articles, usually every Tuesday in the Telegraph, she is fairly sharp.
She fairly accurate though. People who are in their doing their money on the machines and betting on every race are keeping the bookies alive.
…but thats their choice and they are doing what they want with their own money.
Are they any more of a mug than someone who….
Spends their money going to a football match or any sporting event
Spends their money going to the theatre
Spends their money on shoes and handbags
Spends their money on cigs
Spends their money going for a meal and an expensive bottle of wine
Spends their money on a night out round the town
Spends their money on clothes
Basically, spending their money on any hobbie/interest they may have…
Think it’s awful that a lot of people who have never been in a betting shop will read that article and paint all of them with the same brush. When we went to see War Horse in London last year it was a scorching hot day and we arrived at the theatre far too early. Instead of queuing in the street with everyone else we went and sat in the Betting Shop next to the theatre. Air con, faux leather seats, a charming guy behind the counter. As for my local bookies, they are light and clean and airy and the staff are friendly. William Hills especially have tables to sit at to watch the racing, the beauty of that being you tend to chat with other people sitting at the same table. The people playing the machines I tend to think of as existing in another dimension. I must say that Ladbrokes, which is probably the oldest shop in the high street tends to be a bit more intimidating, with a glass screen etc. I probably wouldn’t hang around there to watch a race as I would at Corals or WH’s.
And just to follow up my recent post with the following scenario’s…
a) Couple 1 – a hardworking couple from Fulham go out for a meal at a decent restaurant and have a couple of bottles of their favourite wine. A couple of hours out and they’ve spent say 150 pounds.
b) Couple 2 – a hardworking couple from a Council estate in West Yorkshire call at their local Chippy and eat their Fish & Chips and then head down to their local bookies and sit in there on the Roulette machine for a couple of hours and they spend 150 pounds.
Why is one of those any more of a mug than the other?
Why is one of those more socially acceptable than the other?
I await responses with interest…
Couple one had better runs
for their money
As usual I will reply twice
…feel a bit akward if I ever go in.
Maybe its my body language lets ’em
know I am a different kettle of fish
or maybe it is my look,
as if I am staring at goldfish from
outside the bowl.
These are noisy sanctuaries, that
serve some sort of social need with
toilets you have to be brave with.…the other reply was here
but I have deleted it
It was based in Chantilly at the tab
and I see too many red faces to post it- Total Posts 17716
Gimmee a break couple #1 only have a chance of a getting a return via indigestion or the fine porcelain in their bathroom. Couple #2 could actually fluke a grand or two. Both are providing employment in their local area.
<!– s:shock: –>
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