Hi Guys, Went to my local Billie Hills & Freds I couldn't believe it that they were asking me and all the other punters to sign a petition in regards to possible betting shop closures due to the new government tax. Whilst I like the guys and girls that work in both shops I politely told them where to stick it... Anyone else been approached to sign this pathetic petition.
LOL I just cant believe the arrogance of these ****ers.. Basically stealing your money with an abundance of dross racing day in day out then begging the poor man to back them up in their argument with the government!!!! I swear you couldn't make it up.
Oh I forgot to add as well as the poor racing they also have their FOBT's and Cartoon racing to boot.
Evening, all. As my regular readers will remember, I promised to be back for the Craven Meeting, so here I am. Several things to be said here, imo. First of all, I think Baracouda's right not to sign the petition, but I sort of understand why the high street chains are doing it. My local Hills and Corals are both plugging the petition, and I've no doubt that if the tax comes into effect and shop profits are affected, some shops will close and others will cut back on staff (and/or on staff wages). In that sense, they're doing nothing different from what your local pub or petrol station would do to rally support against a proposed tax increase. The difference here is that, as well as the tired old argument that everyone has a right to spend their money how they like, the versions I've seen actually major on the social and community aspects of shop usage. Even my local Coral manager (a lady with no sense of irony whatever) saw the funny side of that: the tax hike is aimed at the one-armed bandits (FOBTs) and anyone who uses a shop will tell you that no machine-player EVER does any social or community bonding while they're playing, to the extent that you sometimes wonder if they can talk at all. There are some fairly complex issues underlying all this. Go to some urban centres fairly near me -Mitcham or Morden spring to mind - and you'll see a lot of betting shops very close to one another (because of anomalies in the planning regulations) and I've no doubt that some of them wouldn't exist if they didn't facilitate the laundering of drugs and other criminally-originated cash. Making the FOBTs more expensive to run would certainly achieve something in that respect, particularly if the tax hike resulted in smaller payouts, so that the laundering percentage became less attractive. But (I'm using very round numbers here, and I'm open to correction) I understand that nationwide shop turnover comprises 40% FOBTs, 30% horse and dog racing, and 30% others, mostly football. My guess is - and the local Hills regional auditor roughly confirms it - that the 60% sport turnover doesn't generate enough profit to sustain the average shop: punters are generally brighter, have access to more information and data, and the biggest hitters are either online or on course. So....what will happen will happen and, as the war on drugs intensifies and the generation of shop/cash punters dies off, shops will close. In that sense, it doesn't matter if you sign the bloody petition or not. As it happens, the two shops I tend to use locally are both very congenial - pleasant staff, amiable customers up for a chat, free tea and coffee and - occasionally - some very high grade banter (there were v.tasteless glass-eye and hook-hand jokes when Hamza won this afternoon, many of them unfriendly to Jamie). But their day is coming to its end after more than 50 pretty golden years since 1961; that's a matter of some regret to me, but not much.
Cheers, Nass, and I hope all goes well with you. Mildly off-topic but, making allowance for the fact that anything quickish over a mile and wearing Abdulla silks automatically gets compared to Frankel, am I right in thinking that Kingman looks more than a bit special ?
Rainermariarilke, I agree with pretty much all of your sentiments on this one. Down the road from where I live there are four betting offices within about fifty yards of each other where there used to be just a William Hill and three empty retail shops. Coral, Ladbrokes and BetFred have all arrived and the first two have four gaming machines each which attract the same handful of youngsters, who seem to spend most of their time going from one office to the next trying their luck on all the FOBTs. Ladbrokes and BetFred already had offices within a mile of these new ones so they are not just arriving and setting up. It is a poor dead-end northern city and this is easy money. In a country where taxation has shifted over the years to place more emphasis on stealth taxes and less on direct (e.g. income) taxes, these FOBTs are seen as easy money by the Treasury now that most gambling is taxed on turnover not profit. The bookies petition will not be attracting my signature because the tax is actually paid by the players so the bookies tax situation has not actually changed. I think that legally the machines have to pay out something like 78%, so what the bookies pay on their guaranteed 22% has changed but what they really object to is their unpaid role as tax collectors for HMRC. Talk of office closures is purely sabre rattling. As you state, market forces will lead to office closures anyway as most young sports punters bet online (hence all the ‘mobile’ advertising) and those of us that bet with cash in the offices are cutting down on our wagering because the increase in poor quality racing reduces our opportunities and we are not stupid enough to bet on video games (i.e. “virtual racing” or South African and American racing where we have virtually no knowledge of the form.
Despise the machines and the clientele that the bookies "encourage" in with their FREE competitions. This is immoral in my eyes as they are encouraging the scourge of FOBTS! My local ladbrokes states " I should be allowed to spend my money as I choose" and that the shop is a vital part of the community! What a load of tosh! YOU can spend your money as you chose and as this Ladbrokes stands alone it will have no effect! If they want to do something for the "community" reduce the maximum stake to £2 a spin rather than the £100! Their "community" spirit has them open from 730am-10pm! This is not for the community but to encourage spend on the FOBT's!
My local chippy (with a Corals next door) had this petition yet no-one in the shop understood why they were signing it, even the chippy owner thought it was punters that would have 25% of their winnings taxed ! High St bookies are a disgrace, they only want FOBT players, they'll happily accommodate anyone wanting to stick a grand in a machine but try asking for £200 on a 5/4 shot and you'll be made to wait while they phone HQ and probably come back with 'you can have £25 at 5/2 Sir and the rest at evens'. I detest the exchanges, they contribute very little to racing, they've ruined the on course ring which will probably lead to a change in the SP system forever, but sadly it's the only place you can get a decent bet on so if you want to play for more than a fiver you're forced to go there. Stan James were the latest to impose a reduction on my stake and they are no different to them all, th eonly exception is Paddy Power who, until now, remain the only ones prepared to behave like a proper bookmaker should, the rest simply want two bob players or machine addicts, so I too politely refused to signed the petition....
Heres the thing with the bookies - they want and have almost 100% win win scenario! Cue the recent "Stand Guard" and late withdrawals the poor wee bookies were bleating about how the rule 4 left them open to larger payouts. Poor feckin bookies how often have you backed e/w in an 8 that became a 7 a 16 that became a 15 or EVEN MORE bent taken an early price and had to pay a rule 4 on a price that was equal if not lesser than the SP? Feel for the bookies, not a chance you created the monster! And it is that!
The bookies do not want a “100% win win scenario”. If the punters never won, even the stupidest ones would stop showing up. That is why the bookies make such a big deal when some 10p punter wins half a million on a Canadian or a Heinz. I have been in the betting game for nearly thirty years and the non-runner doing punters out of third and fourth places has always been there. I hardly ever bet each-way so it does not really affect me but whether a trainer withdraws a horse or not is hardly in their control. Over a period of time, I have backed plenty of horses at early prices where the deduction has meant losing out on the S.P.; but I usually look at it and think that the non-runner might have beaten my horse in which case I would have got nothing. The Rule 4 deductions are standardised and you have to accept as a player that sometimes you will win and sometimes you will lose. If you thought that the withdrawn short-priced favourite had no chance, you are going to feel aggrieved but you have to accept the rules of the game before you play.
So on my way home from town the other day, I popped into one of the NINE bookies along my 20 minute walk home, this one happened to be a Ladbrokes. Whilst placing my bet at the counter I came across a clipboard with what looked like a petition titled something along the lines of "support your local bookie", on further reading of the guff it appeared the bookies were going to be "forced" to close shops due to new taxes introduced on gaming machines. You f**king what?!! These bookies make huge profits and pay shop staff virtually minimum wage. They clearly aren't losing money on shops and even if they are they really don't need THREE ladbrokes shops in the space of 100m. This is nothing more than a shameless attempt to escape paying tax on an industry that makes £600m profit each year! Sorry rant over..
I read in the Saturday edition of the Racing Post that William Hill are to close 109 offices, which they have claimed is because of the tax measure introduced by the Chancellor that is going to reportedly cost them £22 million. Strangely, the report claims that these are “loss making” offices. That means that the gentleman from William Hill telling the media that they are closing because of the five per cent tax rise is a bare faced liar. If an office is losing money now it is still economically not viable whether taxes go up or stay unchanged. How many of these offices are on poor northern council estates? I bet that not many of them are in wealthy parts of west London where the real estate costs ten times as much but the punters stakes are ten times as much. The petition had been replaced by a big betting slip advertising 66/1 Steve Bruce to be next Man United manager yesterday. If the Saturday morning rumours in the Dutch media and on 5 Live are true, that should be 66,000,000/1.
