where do we stop though? should pubs close down incase of people becoming alcoholics - is wetherspoons to blame for binge drinking and fighting on a saturday night because of cheap drink prices - maybe its modern times but sometimes it is just a little too easy to blame others.
just like with any addiction another fix will be found, have worked with gambling addicts in the past one who was obsessed with them machines, he done a shit load of overtime one december and got paid in cash around 6k i think, anyway offered me a lift home to bexley from earls court and he must of had us stopping at every bookies he could find doing £200 a spin on the poxy machines would only do one spin then walk off at the end of the lift he asked me if he could borrow £200 to buy his wife a xmas present.
You've highlighted a good example of why it is a good idea to reduce to max stake or ban them completely, how can anyone agree that someone can be rinsed of 6 grand in one evening is a good thing? There needs to be regulation so restrict it to online only. I think what people do in their own home is their own business so if they wanna blow all their money on gambling fine, but luring people off the street is morally unacceptable, if they still want to do it, they can join a casino where it is regulated. It also shouldn't be allowed to have a form of gambling that can be fixed by the bookmaker, it should only be for sports which neither party has influence over the outcome
you could go to a casino and do the exact same thing though, i have no idea if they have max bet but having been to vegas i was sat in a casino people watching and a lady was doing 25k a hand blackjack she lost 10 on the spin so in around 5 mins she had burned 250k, madness really.
the only other niggle with bookies is skybet enable at the weekend they had a bet over 2 lengths 2/1 max bet £9.25 ffs
can certainly see a lot more bookies going as certainly for the high street ones they lived on these machines - in all honesty it ruined the bookies, used to drink in the william camden in bexleyheath and on saturday sunday day time we would often when charlton playing go in the pub and nip out do bets on the horses etc watch the race and then go back in pub, then these places become awash with vile people kicking the fuck out of machines because they had just emptied there wages into them.
going back to my example about pubs in liverpool the other weekend for a stag do we was in popworld - awful place but they done 12 jagerbombs for £10 that surely promotes excess drinking.
Thats not quite the case, in a casino and even Bingo you have to have a membership and you have to wait 24 hours before you can start, so it has to be premeditated so as to deter the problem gambler, FOBT's leech off the spontaneous gambler with cash in his pocket and those people tend to be the vulnerable addicts, it should never have been allowed, and bookies coped perfectly OK before these machines came in
The 24 hour wait disappeared years and years ago. If you are going to attempt to frame an argument then at least get your facts straight.
It might surprise some of you to hear me say that I am in total agreement with this change. FOBTs are evil bastard robots that suck money from those least able to control their behaviour or deal with the losses that inevitably happen.
I'm also old school and betting offices are supposed to be turf accountants - I've never seen a blade of grass on a FOBT. They were never meant to be amusement arcades!
That said, I don't share (sadly) the optimism of some who believe betting shops will once again become home to horse race punters. Back in the day (too many f*cking years ago) when I first entered the industry 75% of shop turnover was horse racing, c20% greyhounds and the other 5% made up of football and other sports/events. That horse (pardon the pun) has long since bolted and the vast majority of horse race betting turnover is online - either exchange or traditional. Even then it accounts for a relatively tiny proportion of all betting - football accounts for 60% plus with tennis and basketball at two and three.
Basketball is an odd one. Didn't realise it was that big for betting. I figured football, horse racing, tennis and golf...
We were in Vegas a couple of years' ago and our trip coincided with the College basketball series. In every hotel casino the screens were showing different games and the betting was phenomenal. As with most American sports, I have no interest.
It might surprise some of you to hear me say that I am in total agreement with this change. FOBTs are evil bastard robots that suck money from those least able to control their behaviour or deal with the losses that inevitably happen.
I'm also old school and betting offices are supposed to be turf accountants - I've never seen a blade of grass on a FOBT. They were never meant to be amusement arcades!
That said, I don't share (sadly) the optimism of some who believe betting shops will once again become home to horse race punters. Back in the day (too many f*cking years ago) when I first entered the industry 75% of shop turnover was horse racing, c20% greyhounds and the other 5% made up of football and other sports/events. That horse (pardon the pun) has long since bolted and the vast majority of horse race betting turnover is online - either exchange or traditional. Even then it accounts for a relatively tiny proportion of all betting - football accounts for 60% plus with tennis and basketball at two and three.
Basketball is an odd one. Didn't realise it was that big for betting. I figured football, horse racing, tennis and golf...
We were in Vegas a couple of years' ago and our trip coincided with the College basketball series. In every hotel casino the screens were showing different games and the betting was phenomenal. As with most American sports, I have no interest.
I found it interesting that more money is bet on dogs than horses (in the UK)
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We were in Vegas a couple of years' ago and our trip coincided with the College basketball series. In every hotel casino the screens were showing different games and the betting was phenomenal. As with most American sports, I have no interest.