Gambling

[Tongs ya bas]

I don't get it.

[Robin Evans]

I buy a lottery now n again.... and I don't mind a day at the races....

But my outlay is minimal.... the occasion is more important tfan the gamble.

I'm too tight to gamble properly

[Robin Evans]

We had the conversation recently.... what would we do if we hit the lotto jackpot....

We worked out we'd give most of it away

[Stevo]

Bookies are a pox on already impoverished communities in the main. Money vanishing down the offshore drain.

Labour's changes to the law in this area were ill-thought through. My local council has a planning policy of no more change of use licenses to convert premises to bookies - a policy which always gets overturned in the Courts on appeal. Money talks as it always does. Consequently, key road junctions in the area have 3 or 4 different bookies' chains within a few hundred  yards. Sometimes a chain will have two outlets within view of each other.

Celebs who promote gambling ought to give their head a wobble.

[Tongs ya bas]

I'd just like to point out that I'm not being judgemental in any way.

The reason I started the thread was that I've recently read a couple of articles about the growth of bookmakers often in the poorest parts of towns and the proliferation of fixed odds betting terminals in bookies as well as the growth of on line gambling.

I like spending money. I like buying stuff big time, but spending money in this way I just can't figure it out: and there seems to be an element of exploitation of people who haven't got much money.

 

[tonyXIII]

16 minutes ago, Robin Evans said:

I buy a lottery now n again.... and I don't mind a day at the races....

But my outlay is minimal.... the occasion is more important tfan the gamble.

I'm too tight to gamble properly

This! For sure. But I have worked in an old-style bookies shop and it was full of losers, (and I don't just mean they lost their bets!) so I know that only the bookies make money out of gambling.

Like you, I do the lottery now and then (probably more often than I should), but it's money I don't need and won't miss.

What else can you do with a big lottery win? Make sure your nearest and dearest are comfortable, stash some 'fun money' and give the rest away.

[Padge]

It is exploitation of people with not much money, no element about it.

 

[Tongs ya bas]

Just now, Padge said:

It is exploitation of people with not much money, no element about it.

 

It is

But why do people choose to be exploited? 

[tonyXIII]

And the lottery has been described as a tax on the poor, which it is! All those lottery-funded schemes simply save the government from paying for them.

Even Maggie was against the idea.

 

[Padge]

3 minutes ago, Tongs ya bas said:

It is

But why do people choose to be exploited? 

They don't see another way of climbing up the ladder, if they only had one lucky break the world would be OK.

 

Rich people can also be a victim.

 

[ckn]

3 minutes ago, Tongs ya bas said:

It is

But why do people choose to be exploited? 

It comes down to a lack of hope in many cases.

[Bedford Roughyed]

23 minutes ago, Stevo said:

Consequently, key road junctions in the area have 3 or 4 different bookies' chains within a few hundred  yards. Sometimes a chain will have two outlets within view of each other.

One of those unexpected consequences.  I don't think they thought bookies would just open multiple shops to get round restrictions.

[Futtocks]

1 hour ago, Tongs ya bas said:

I don't get it.

No you don't - the bookie does.

[Bedford Roughyed]

Victoria Coren wrote a good piece on this a month or so ago -

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/19/a-stupid-gamble-on-evil-machines

 

[Tongs ya bas]

51 minutes ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

Victoria Coren wrote a good piece on this a month or so ago -

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/19/a-stupid-gamble-on-evil-machines

 

That's one of the articles I read. Of course coren is a serious gambler herself

[shrek]

Things like this need outlawing, must take loads for mugs, especially with how easily you can manipulate your past results to make it look like your a winner.

[Bedford Roughyed]

3 minutes ago, shrek said:

Things like this need outlawing, must take loads for mugs, especially with how easily you can manipulate your past results to make it look like your a winner.

Wasn't there a case recently when a tipster forgot to photoshop some slips that showed he was only betting pennies?

[shrek]

4 minutes ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

Wasn't there a case recently when a tipster forgot to photoshop some slips that showed he was only betting pennies?

I missed that, but it wouldn't surprise me, it needs clamping down on, surely if there profiting from it, then posting it to a page on a public page on Facebook constitutes from form of advertising.

[Bedford Roughyed]

15 minutes ago, shrek said:

I missed that, but it wouldn't surprise me, it needs clamping down on, surely if there profiting from it, then posting it to a page on a public page on Facebook constitutes from form of advertising.

I don't fully understand betting (I mean the terminology), but this is the one I remembered seeing -

 

[Griff9of13]

58 minutes ago, Tongs ya bas said:

That's one of the articles I read. Of course coren is a serious gambler herself

However she argues (quite rightly IMO) that she gambles in a way (cards) that involves some input of skill from the participant whereas fixed odds betting machines operate on pure chance and with the odds weighted firmly in the bookies favour. It's telling that if you ever examine a fruit machine in a pub or wherever it will always state somewhere on the front the average payout percentage that machine gives, usually somewhere in the region of 80%. That actually spells out to the player that for every pound you put in you will most likely only get 80 pence back. In other words you're guaranteed to lose. I also suspect that Victoria Coren Mitchell can also afford her gambling, sticking well within her means.

[Tongs ya bas]

14 minutes ago, Griff9of13 said:

However she argues (quite rightly IMO) that she gambles in a way (cards) that involves some input of skill from the participant whereas fixed odds betting machines operate on pure chance and with the odds weighted firmly in the bookies favour. It's telling that if you ever examine a fruit machine in a pub or wherever it will always state somewhere on the front the average payout percentage that machine gives, usually somewhere in the region of 80%. That actually spells out to the player that for every pound you put in you will most likely only get 80 pence back. In other words you're guaranteed to lose. I also suspect that Victoria Coren Mitchell can also afford her gambling, sticking well within her means.

I'm a fan of hers too.

[graveyard johnny]

i do the football accum coupon some Saturdays ,maybe an rl handicap (but rare) a pound on each line- half the fun is seeing the results coming in and it adds a bit of interest to the games, apart from that nothing  much really

[graveyard johnny]

professional gamblers who do dead cert betting need some nerve, eg aus are 1/2 to win the rl wc outright so many pro gamblers will bet £2000 to win £1000

[graveyard johnny]

results are in and im 3 quid down again, oh well

[Frog]

Just remember it's not real gambling unless you can't afford to loose.