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Post by staggerstag on Apr 27, 2017 23:10:24 GMT
As well as all the internet sites, the only time you see a High Street bookie shut up shop is to move to bigger premises down the road. Punting is everywhere. I enjoy a punt now and then on the football but cringe at the glossy TV ads for X, Y and Z bookmakers where everyone looks happy and shiny. Bingo, Virtual Casino, FOBTs etc. Is it finally all too much, I ask myself?
Experts warn of £12.6bn UK problem.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2017 23:35:28 GMT
Yes, it is too much.
I've mentioned this once or twice before but I used to have a bit of a gambling problem years ago. It was only when I came home pissed and buzzed on class As, then I'd start betting crazily on everything, pretty much everything. One weekend I lost over 30k, and that was the final straw, closed down all my online accounts. Haven't placed a bet now for about 7 or 8 years I think, and don't miss it in the slightest.
Was never one for going into the high street bookmakers anyway, so in that sense I think it was easier for me to kick the habit, you can contact your online bookies and tell them you want to close your account down permanently and they do that for you, but I'm not sure if you can do the same on the High St and ask the person working in a shop to bar you permanently?
Anyway, it's the adverts that still bug me, it feels like an intrusion into my home, I still feel a small amount of anxiety every time I see an advert on TV. I don't care when people talk about gambling or when an event is sponsored by a gambling company, it specifically those adverts telling you to gamble that piss me off. Should be banned (the ads).
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2017 23:49:04 GMT
Gambling is a mug's game. You always lose in the long run.
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Post by staggerstag on Apr 27, 2017 23:54:54 GMT
Yes, every high street bookie has what are called Customer Self-Exclusion forms. But in the two years I worked for one bookie I never had cause to use a single one. The pad just sat there in a drawer untouched and dog-eared. I imagine most shop punters are unaware even that such a form exists. Yes, I remember your posts on the subject from the old Sports Board, and things seem to have got more severe. The old argument about choice will always run but I do feel it's getting out of hand. I remember being verbally and physically attacked at work, cried to (literally, punters sobbing on the counter, one or two begging me to refund their losing wagers) the shop being sabotaged by what I assumed were bitter losers (chewing gum in the front shutter locks when you opened up of a morning, piss all over the WC floor, glue in the coin slots of AWPs and more) And that was a good 18 or 20 years ago. These days you can go on YouTube and watch videos of FOBTs being pushed on their sides and worse. I could go on but everyone knows the score. I agree, the advertising side of gambling needs restricting. I don't wanna kill anyone's pleasure but I'm getting sick of the happy, carefree pictures of punters that these ads portray.
Well done on your cessation as well, if I may say.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2017 0:17:44 GMT
Well done on your cessation as well, if I may say.Thanks mate. Yeah, the FOBT machines look really bad. I've never played on them, but I know with myself, it is the kind of bets that offer an instant return, like betting on who is going to win the next frame of snooker, or worse, who is going to win the next point at tennis, those sort of wagers were where the compulsiveness really takes hold. I absolutely know that with a straight mind I'd never touch that sort of thing, but when you add alcohol and drugs into the equation, common sense goes out the window. The FOBT machines are similar in that respect in that they offer an instant return, so I can see why they are so addictive. I don't think gambling should be banned outright, I believe in choice, but at the same time people need to be saved from themselves, so I would probably ban those FOBT machines as they look like the most addictive, most destructive forms of gambling. If you are betting on who is going to win the Premier League next year for instance, well that in comparison is probably fairly harmless, but I wont touch any kind of gambling now, if I start justifying one kind of wager to myself, then the slippery slope will probably begin again. And the bookies have had more than enough of my hard earned money. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2017 1:22:43 GMT
I've never really got into bookies, the occasional footy bet aside. The internet changed everything (I wouldn't trust myself with that kind of easy, constant access). When you've got to walk up the street to the local Ladbrokes to blow your wage, it's not so bad.
I prefer the casino. The feel of the velvet, the stink of the croupier, the crisp feel of the cards, the food brought right up to you and placed on a wee table with wheels. Even the knobhead next to you who keeps raising. Love the whole thing.
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