[News] Betting William Hill.

[Whitechapel]

That's a shit analogy.

It is illegal for a publican to keep serving somebody who has had too much to drink...

But you’ve proven my point there without realising it.

People have a problem with drink. Pubs/Bars/Clubs can serve pretty much whatever they want. However they have to make judgment calls on when their patrons have had enough. If they fail to do that then they’re in trouble. It’s not a perfect system, but it works well enough.

People have a problem with gambling. We’re going to reduce their biggest in store earner by such a large amount that the machines are basically pointless now. There’s no case by case basis. Blanket reduction for all. It’s two very different outcomes for two fairly similar situations.

Personally I’d have liked the government to ban machines that take credit/debit cards and cash, meaning all FOBT only take pre-paid cards with money loaded on to them. Money can be put on in store or if bookies want to offer the service then via their website (Ladbrokes allow this, IDK if anybody else does). Cards can only have so much put on at one time. Spending limits can then be imposed much easier. It gives the bloke behind the bookies counter the “Sir you’ve spent £500/had 15 pints already” moment so that they can set the limits

You could even take that further and have the accounts have a daily/weekly/monthly cap which can only be increased when the cardholder sends proof of income to the head office of Ladbrokes/Willy Hill/Coral. If you can afford to spend £100 a spin then send a payslip to get your limit increased.

 

[bha100]

Feel sorry for the staff but the company is rancid, as are all the shysters. These jokers won’t let me bet online and when I started using the East Sussex & Brighton shops they soon limited me to £25 a bet, what a joke. This is without winning fortunes and betting at odds between evens and 2/1. I now have to travel to London to get a decent amount on which is a bit of a pain but an occupational hazard. It’s fun being on the commuter train in my t shirt and shorts in amongst all the suits but a bit unnecessary really given they are one company.


The London shops are far busier than the Sussex ones so hoping that not too many on my route of shops are closing.

Beard accounts getting less and less useful too as once you appear to have a tiny edge they don’t want to know.

No need to travel around these days to get money on, just use a broker, completely anonymous too


https://betinasia.com/

https://www.asianconnect88.com/

 

[LVGull]

Is it really a concern? They are bloody everywhere and most people still won't be too far from one.

In Worthing there are five William Hills, including two in the town centre that are about a two-minute walk apart.

For reasons that matched bettors may be familiar with, I visited a few of them on a couple of occasions three or four months ago prior to the change in FOBT stakes, and they really are desperate places. The old chaps sat around watching race 7 from Crayford, each with their 20p reverse forecasts on. I can see the bookie acts as a bit of a social hub for these gentlemen.

Beyond these older sorts though, there would be people slipping in and out quite clearly in many cases spending money they couldn't afford to lose on the FOBT machines. I dread to think of some misery that would result from these losses.

I hope this change in legislation extends online too, where it's still possible to bet £100, or more, on a single spin of a fruit machine, or "slot" as they are called. There is no reason why anyone needs to bet £100 at a time on a spin of a fruit machine.

These are evil places and need shutting down. They threatened closing because they couldn’t make profit out of FOBM. Greed is the root to all evil.

 

[Blue&WhiteSea]

This video articulates my thoughts better than I can.
https://vimeo.com/345419182
Longer version https://vimeo.com/345658708

 

[Sussex Nomad]

Bookies are like rats in London, you're never far away from one. A few years back in Chinatown/Soho they had more shops between them than there are Chinese restaurants. All you ever see on tv after a certain hour are betting commercials, they sponsor programmes such as The Chase, they are all over Premier League shirts. You see them in adverts on websites, I get literally spammed on my emails and have to unsubscribe every time. WH shutting a few shops will make no dent in their profits whatsoever. It's about time these sharks were regulated, and I believe it should go further.*

* I don't gamble, so I'm not losing money.

 

[Seagulls over Essex]

Feel sorry for the staff but the company is rancid, as are all the shysters. These jokers won’t let me bet online and when I started using the East Sussex & Brighton shops they soon limited me to £25 a bet, what a joke. This is without winning fortunes and betting at odds between evens and 2/1. I now have to travel to London to get a decent amount on which is a bit of a pain but an occupational hazard. It’s fun being on the commuter train in my t shirt and shorts in amongst all the suits but a bit unnecessary really given they are one company.


The London shops are far busier than the Sussex ones so hoping that not too many on my route of shops are closing.

Beard accounts getting less and less useful too as once you appear to have a tiny edge they don’t want to know.

Just out of interest, why can't you bet locally or online with another bookmaker, instead of travelling to London?

 

[El Presidente]

People say that football has been ruined by money. Total wagers received in the Premier League was £5.2 billion in 2017/18. The revenue generated by ONE bookmaker, Bet365 Group, in the same year were £52 billion.

 

[Ninja Elephant]

I've seen people lost thousands in minutes to an FOBT. You can drink yourself silly, but it'll cost you far less and that is the difference for me.

William Hill, Corals, Ladbrokes - all opening huge numbers of stores on the back of the FOBT success. Now those stores will close. The cycle will re-start again when the regulations inevitably change and I'm sorry for the people who are losing their jobs. But it's better that, than the devastation those machines have caused a large number of people.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but aren't most bookies based in Gibraltar where they pay very little in tax?

 

[giveusfalmerplease]

ironically this change of rules for the FOBS has backfired for a few "problem gamblers" as its driven them online where you can now bet £500 a spin on many slots (buying a free spin feature) and roulette table limits stretch beyond the weekly wages of most of us.

I would have been much in favour of them limiting the FOBs to say £20 but restrict it by time - say £20 per minute. This way you can still have a reasonable chance of making a decent return and would have likely been a sensible compromise for the bookies.

 

[The Andy Naylor Fan Club]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but aren't most bookies based in Gibraltar where they pay very little in tax?

That's the online side of the gambling business.

 

[Invicta]

But you’ve proven my point there without realising it.

People have a problem with drink. Pubs/Bars/Clubs can serve pretty much whatever they want. However they have to make judgment calls on when their patrons have had enough. If they fail to do that then they’re in trouble. It’s not a perfect system, but it works well enough.

People have a problem with gambling. We’re going to reduce their biggest in store earner by such a large amount that the machines are basically pointless now. There’s no case by case basis. Blanket reduction for all. It’s two very different outcomes for two fairly similar situations.

Personally I’d have liked the government to ban machines that take credit/debit cards and cash, meaning all FOBT only take pre-paid cards with money loaded on to them. Money can be put on in store or if bookies want to offer the service then via their website (Ladbrokes allow this, IDK if anybody else does). Cards can only have so much put on at one time. Spending limits can then be imposed much easier. It gives the bloke behind the bookies counter the “Sir you’ve spent £500/had 15 pints already” moment so that they can set the limits

You could even take that further and have the accounts have a daily/weekly/monthly cap which can only be increased when the cardholder sends proof of income to the head office of Ladbrokes/Willy Hill/Coral. If you can afford to spend £100 a spin then send a payslip to get your limit increased.

That's like having a bank manager in every bookies in the land. Yet all the bank are closing!

William Hill will make much bigger profits closing the branches... happy days from them !

 

[Surrey Phil]

I’m sorry for the staff but you have to embrace modern appetites and the facts are that if it’s available online, you don’t need shops and all the overheads that come with it!

 

[Cian]

In general I've no problem with the removal of high street bookies bar the staff losses - albeit they were often staffed by very few people working hideous shifts, that doesn't find them a job somewhere else

Brand wise - my grandfather used to have his weekly flutter in the William Hill at the end of the road - would never go anywhere else, because they were the "gentlemans bookmakers"

They had shops everywhere, part of the (street) furniture basically. The shop near his house closed not long after he died - not that I think he was keeping it going. Last time I checked before today they were down to about 15 shops in all of ROI but they now seem to have none. And of course there's nothing gentleman like about them, either now or back then really; but strangely its still like part of my childhood gone

 

[Billy Seagull]

Just out of interest, why can't you bet locally or online with another bookmaker, instead of travelling to London?

Because I a have a decent edge and win a fair bit, they don't like that. Hills make the most mistakes in the markets I bet so need to use them to maximise profits.

 

[Billy Seagull]

No need to travel around these days to get money on, just use a broker, completely anonymous too


https://betinasia.com/

https://www.asianconnect88.com/

Thanks for these. Unfortunately, I don't bet with Aisian markets as they don't offer the markets I bet on.

 

[Whitechapel]

That's like having a bank manager in every bookies in the land. Yet all the bank are closing!

No, it’s not.

 

[Whitechapel]

I've seen people lost thousands in minutes to an FOBT. You can drink yourself silly, but it'll cost you far less and that is the difference for me.

William Hill, Corals, Ladbrokes - all opening huge numbers of stores on the back of the FOBT success. Now those stores will close. The cycle will re-start again when the regulations inevitably change and I'm sorry for the people who are losing their jobs. But it's better that, than the devastation those machines have caused a large number of people.

I worked with a lad who inherited a decent sum of money one day; in fact it was about 3 years salary for him. He quit his job with the intention of using the money for a few weeks of boozing before learning to drive, finding a better job and then putting a deposit down on a flat for himself.

He came crawling back looking for his old job 4 months later having pissed the entire sum of money up the wall. Woke up at 10:30, cab to his favourite pub, get there as it opens, sit there drinking and smoking until close, order a takeaway whilst pissed, cab home when the pub closes. Every day. For 4 months. Yes, he may have blown through the money even faster if he’d spent it on FOBT, but it would have certainly been a lot better for his health, he’d probably have been sober enough to learn to drive and at the end of the day the net result is exactly the same.

 

[bluenitsuj]

I feel sorry for the staff, but feel far more sorry for the tens of thousands addicted to gambling so am in favour of anything that tries to help these people.

 

[herecomesaregular]

Glad this is happening, hope many more branches of all bookmakers are closed and taken off the high street.

I only use bet365, for tiny nominal fun bets to keep things ticking over and the free bet offer/grand national offers highlighted on NSC. Down from the outrageously generous £50 free bet to now £5, but still use it while it's offered.

Part of me is ashamed we are bank rolled by someone from this industry, making billions out of misery.