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Thanks all for the kind words about my previous post.
To address a couple of points raised by various posters purely from my own viewpoint not that of my employer.
Firstly, people do win big, I am obviously not going to go into great specifics here as I do not want my employer to be able to work out who I am, (need the job unfortunately) but, on a given day recently the amount won by customers was approx £3,000 more than the amount inserted and that included at least 3 winning £500 slot jackpots on the one day. To address a second point about amount of cash in the machines, then yes upwards of £5,000 a day would be by no means uncommon on busy days and roughly £2,000 to £2,500 on quieter days. Now as the machines are obviously going to pay out to their percentage over a predetermined number of games, it is not difficult using the probability mentioned in one post above that the days where the payout is £3,000 more than the take in are considerably fewer than the days where the reverse is true. The last figure that I heard for our Gross Win Per Terminal Per Week was before the merger and it was sitting at just over £1,000 per machine.
So that’s 4 machines per shop, winning £1,000 each per week over roughly 1850 shops nationwide.
4000x52x1850 = £384m before the chancellor takes his cut. Not hard to see why the bookies don’t want to lose them.
Couple of quick comments on other points, I have no doubt lots and lots of dirty money goes through these machines. We have a system where we get an alert if for example a customer inserts £300, then plays £2 and collects the £298. We are supposed to withhold payment and refer it to our anti money laundering team. I shall leave you all to guess how often that really happens. As to whether FOBT players didn’t do well at school, I think that is too sweeping a comment to make with all due respect. Many of our FOBT clients are well dressed gents who obviously hold down decent jobs, what I will say though is that it is a proven fact that in areas of social deprivation or large areas of social housing then the number of FOBT machines on the high streets there is much higher than in a leafy affluent suburb. More machines for those at the lower end of society and with greater needs to lose money on than those with high disposable incomes. That cannot be rightMMM FOBT. The very mention of that acronym is the bain of my life. As a betting shop manager of 30+ years standing (long enough to remember when steeplechasing* and his brothers worked for us, us being the red shirts but really everything is now blue), I can easily say these machines are the worst thing ever to hit the betting shops.
They cause so much anti social behaviour, shouting, swearing, wilful damage to the machines, threats to staff because in the mind of the losing customer we flick the lose switch every time they stick their benefits/wages/rent money/money stolen from the wife’s purse into that illuminated slot with the blue lights that swallows £20’s in a futile chase of 27 red.
Bookmakers lost the plot years ago when it comes to these machines. They saw them as a total cash cow. Ripping out whole sections of space previously used to display newspapers with horse racing on them. Racing, that product that a betting shop was actually meant for when they first opened back in the early 1960’s. My employer even tried to circumvent the rule on only 4 machines per shop in one shop in Luton, by building a partition wall with a door in it and obtaining a second licence for through the door. Voila, 8 machines in one shop!!
Now of course staff are “trained” in responsible gambling. We are expected to approach that chap in the suit, or the local drug dealer who has just lost £500 in 20 mins and has started using language a navvy would blush at to ask if he or she is ok. We are then, if not told to mind our own business or eff off, expected to log this on the log on the computer. Does this happen? Does it hell. Every time a machine alert flashes up on screen staff simply click, known customer, no change in behaviour as this means we do not need to physically interact with them.
Then we run machine days, with tournaments where staff are encouraged to demonstrate games to customers with a view to getting them trying the game with a theoretical £100. Idea being customer likes game and then will play with real money. How does that fit with our commitment to responsible gambling? We then get statistics fired back to the shop saying we have only had xx amount of demos, that is way to low, you must do more!! again how can that possibly be responsible gambling.
Honestly I hope the maximum stake is slashed to £2. They say it will close shops, I have my doubts. Most shops still have good numbers of slots players playing at up to £2 a spin. In my previous and current shop slots play outstrips roulette by a fairly decent margin. The senior managers might need to become inventive and actually remember that we are primarily a betting shop, betting on horses and dogs and if they turn their attention to that more people might become interested in racing again, and the shop staff can breathe a collective sigh of relief that the FOBT burden has been mostly removed from their daily life.Condolences to the connections of Becauseshesaidso.
Ex RubyLight, could you please give us a list of what you consider to be good race tracks.
Don’t think Fontwell has become “ridiculous”. From what I can gather there have been four fatal injuries there since October 2016. I think that is a considerably better ratio than some other tracks.
Love looking at that. That’s a finish to rival the Hamilton hill. Would also love to see any film of other defunct courses. Ally Pally, Manchester, Stockton (Teeside Park) Lanark, Bogside, Wye, Buckfastleigh etc etc
The stable has had only 6 runners so far this season and two of them are already dead.
RIP to both of them!
What are you suggesting with that comment? One has gone wrong on the flat today and the other went wrong inside the final furlong of an NHF race after leading and staying on in second.
Looked a very bad fall. It was quite obvious that some part of his body was badly injured.
Rest in Peace Sir Valentino!
Seriously? It was one of the softest falls I have ever seen. His trainer says the same. I honestly think you over egg every pudding when it comes to the sad demise of a thorougbred.
Sorry, not wanting to be controversial but……
He was somewhat bearable until he did that stint in the US and then came back here and now all we get are those stupid Americanisms (they are in the gate etc) and the shouting commentary – best thing when ITV started out was that he wasn’t given the lead commentator role.
Couldn’t agree more – The Fighting Fifth and the Rehearsal Chase are not sprints at Del Mar, Aqueduct or Churchill Downs.
Was Mark Johnson’s on course commentary used for the TV races from Newcastle on ITV today? If it was I can imagine the sound of mute buttons being pressed was erm deafening. Grating is a polite description.
I’d love to go one day.
Yes; we plan to go
Do go if you can, it is an outstanding day out. I was there in 2015 and it was amazing. LONG day, ten races, but well organised and really easy to get to from central Melbourne by train. Best bit of advice I could give is purchase the best Flemington tickets you can afford, it’s a hell of a way to go to see a race and you might as well see it in style. Think ours were around $AU215 each (£110 each or so then) and it was money well spent.
Not sure how I missed Flemington from my top 5 list. Packed to the rafters on Melbourne Cup day, yet organised and easy to get around. Train station at the front door, a hugely impressive day out and the crowds reaction to Michelle Payne was fantastic.
Just a pity it also turned out to be the old warrior Red Cadeaux’s swansong.Top 5
Hamilton – first ever track when I was a lad, love it to this day and it deserves every plaudit it gets
Laytown – fantatstic experience on the beach, never seen anything like it (except Southwell flooded)
Cartmel – impossible to see most of it, but what a day out
Listowel – gorgeous track in a beautiful town with super friendly people, a must visit
Perth/Kelso – great atmosphere, friendly staff, warm welcome
All of these are smaller tracks, the big boys could learn a thing or twoBottom 5
Yarmouth – ok it rained, it was freezing and I backed 6 losers, but it was naff
Newmarket Rowley – loutish behaviour on Guineas day, dreadful viewing, lack of atmosphere
Haydock – full of pissheads not interested in the racing
Doncaster – I found it a soulless barn of a place
Chester – only because of the huge draw bias, races can be decided on declaration dayA regular around the southern tracks not so long ago, trained by Dominic French Davies was,
Geespot, by Pursuit of Love out of My DiscoveryBrilliantly named
any commentator would have served up a memorable commentary there purely because of the sheer quality of the raw material provided.
Any? Des Scahill?
Would have loved to have heard Thommo commentating on that finish!
The real issue here is the total lack of cooperation between the BHA and HRI.
In the winter the carefully structured schedule of off times on days with several meetings will sometimes be rendered out of kilter by abandonments and the consequences thereof.
Today was a prime example. The only terrestrial broadcaster was in Britain and having lost both one of its scheduled meetings and its backup (Taunton) it’s only natural ITV and the BHA were keen that an extra race could be shown live by pushing back the start times at Haydock by merely 5 minutes. Doing this had the additional benefit, to shops and those watching both RUK and ATR at the same time, of widening the gap between races at Lingfield and Haydock.
However, it also produced a clash between Haydock and Navan, the latter being a perfectly respectable meeting in one of the two closely related countries for whose inhabitants Jumps racing is a national passion.
With the last race at Navan scheduled for 3.55, well before darkness descends, why wouldn’t HRI do the logical thing, whether requested to by the BHA or not, by pushing back all the races at Navan by 10 minutes?
According to this article
http://www.racingpost.com/news/live.sd?event_id=23340124&category=0
HRI were perfectly happy to delay the Navan races and officials at Navan were too. Unfortunately the Navan stewards saw no reason to delay them and one has to hope they are happy with their narrowminded decision and enjoyed knocking off at their scheduled time rather than a whole ten minutes late.
Have to say that I like Simon Holt and I’m quite pleased he will be heard more in the betting shops than on TV from now on, but, having watched the King George live on C4 and now the replay on Racing Uk Mark Johnson’s commentary on track at Kempton is far superior and totally encapsulates the moment that the superstar that is Thistlecrack has arrived on the big stage than Holt’s C4 commentary does. Well done Mark.
