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.
or South African and American racing where we have virtually no knowledge of the form.
