He should release another secret footballer book.
That was Dave Kitson wasn't it?
He should release another secret footballer book.
Didn't he score a late winner at Reading for us once ? I seem to remember going apeshit in the Font & Firkin that night.
Was it Kitson that scored AGAINST us with a handball goal?Was that FOR Reading?
That's the one.
No, you are thinking of Nicky Forster (in the Worthing end at Withdean)... before he started wearing stripes the right way up!
That he did, I remember going apeshit in the stands at the Mad Stad that night.
That was Dave Kitson wasn't it?
Jason KitCat wasn't it?
Gambling really is a cancer - I wish governments would do more to curb it. People are free to do as they choose, but I would be quite happy to see the advertisements (intended to trigger gambling-related cues) banned. The Gambling Commission has recommended fixed odds betting terminals should be cut to £30 or less (from £100) - doesn't go nearly far enough.
Soon, Gambling Commission will require all online gambling websites to be part of www.gamstop.co.uk, where you can self-exclude from gambling websites in one place (instead of having to go to each individual website). This is long overdue, but I'm happy to see something like this is finally in place.
FOBTs are the issue?? Crikey put the paper down and grow an educated opinion. There is a thread on here every single week saying I'm backing this or that. You switch the TV or radio on and its adverts for bookmakers. I'm watching snooker at the moment and its got Betfred blasted all around the side. Ban sports betting and a shit load of sports would disappear from our TV screens not to mention the amount of jobs lost on the highstreet.
How on earth do you think that campaign is funded? Ditto the when the fun stops stop?
I can tell you from first hand experience that for all the good it does it just creates another channel for people to try an exploit!
Why can't people take responsibility for their own actions rather than being desperate to find someone to blame?
FOBTs are the issue?? Crikey put the paper down and grow an educated opinion. There is a thread on here every single week saying I'm backing this or that. You switch the TV or radio on and its adverts for bookmakers. I'm watching snooker at the moment and its got Betfred blasted all around the side. Ban sports betting and a shit load of sports would disappear from our TV screens not to mention the amount of jobs lost on the highstreet.
How on earth do you think that campaign is funded? Ditto the when the fun stops stop?
I can tell you from first hand experience that for all the good it does it just creates another channel for people to try an exploit!
Why can't people take responsibility for their own actions rather than being desperate to find someone to blame?
FOBTs are the issue?? Crikey put the paper down and grow an educated opinion. There is a thread on here every single week saying I'm backing this or that. You switch the TV or radio on and its adverts for bookmakers. I'm watching snooker at the moment and its got Betfred blasted all around the side. Ban sports betting and a shit load of sports would disappear from our TV screens not to mention the amount of jobs lost on the highstreet.
How on earth do you think that campaign is funded? Ditto the when the fun stops stop?
I can tell you from first hand experience that for all the good it does it just creates another channel for people to try an exploit!
Why can't people take responsibility for their own actions rather than being desperate to find someone to blame?
Didn't he score a late winner at Reading for us once ? I seem to remember going apeshit in the Font & Firkin that night.
Without FOBTs there wouldnt be high street bookies now probably. The people placing a fiver on an accy on here and backing blooms horse/the latest NSC greyhound is not the same thing as playing the crack cocaine machines that are betting terminals.
Saying someone should take responsibility for their own actions? Go and share that a a Gamblers Anonymous meeting or to the families and businesses and people who have lost everything to their addiction. Not all people can bet just on the Grand National/Xmas number 1/royal babies names. There wouldnt be bookies or casinos without addicts, and there likely wouldnt be pubs either without regular drinkers/addicts. And if a few country pubs and high street bookies closed down cos of it, so be it
Wow. You are asking me to grow an educated opinion?!
Gambling can be an addiction, the same as smoking can be an addiction. It is a pathological disorder. The amount of people who are problem gamblers is very high. With online betting, it has become far easier to sign up to websites and lose money very quickly. This is a big problem. The 'where the fun stops' campaign was entirely flawed because it fails to understand the neurobiological reality of addiction. For those who follow football, it's hard to get away from gambling-related cues, because you can't watch football on TV or go to a football match without these cues being presented to you, which are designed to trigger relapse. Now GAMSTOP will allow people to sign up to a SINGLE website, where they can self-exclude from online gambling. Currently, someone can just self-exclude from one website, and then simply sign up to another - so that doesn't really help addicts. I don't CARE how it's funded. How on earth is that NOT a good idea?
As you say, there's adverts everywhere. This is part of the problem. Smoking adverts were (rightly) banned, because of the harmful consequences of smoking. So why not gambling adverts? People are still free to gamble - cues won't just be in their face all the time. Some people will inevitably lose jobs if companies lose revenue, etc - but given it's an entire industry based on profiting from and exploiting the misfortune of others, I don't think that's a valid reason not to do it. When industries and/or companies are exploiting others, action needs to be taken. There's plenty of examples where this has rightly happened in other industries.
FOBTs are one of many issues. There's been campaigns against them, and recently the Gambling Commission made some recommendations (which have been criticised), which is one of the reasons why I highlighted it. It's a BIG issue, given it makes up more than HALF of bookmakers' revenue. £1.8billion per year.
Why can't people take responsibility for their own actions? Well let me tell you how addiction is defined - 'the inability to to control the desire ... despite the negative consequences'. To put it simply, it is the result of structural and chemical changes in the brain. Gambling addicts don't WANT to gamble, they can't help it - the same way drug addicts cannot control their desire to take drugs. It's not a CHOICE. There is lots of research going on into potential treatments for relapse to drug addiction, and it's thought that a shared model could allow treatments to work across not only addictive drugs, but other forms of addiction too - such as gambling.
Cues for addiction trigger rapid changes between connections in the brain, which result in the activation of pathways that result in relapse. Doing all we can to reduce these cues being presented to addicts is not a bad thing, in my opinion. Further, it will help less people become addicts in the first place.
If you are desperate for a punt in this modern world you'll easily be able to find one and to be able to punt an awful lot more than the limits on the FOBTs
Tell that to the thousand of people that would lose their jobs. Tell that to the old folk that use retail outlets as their daily social hub. And for christ sake don't moan about the millions lost from the income tax pot.
I know exactly what GAMSTOP is I work in the industry. In fact I'm running a campaign promoting it at the moment. Something we are not required to do but are. As I said its already being exploited.
So should banks stop lending money to people in case they get in debt?
Should pubs stop selling booze in case someone likes a drink a little bit too much?
If you are addicted to something then its not anyones fault other than your own. No one has put a gun to anyones head and said have a bet or a drink or take this. Anyone who has an addiction has my upmost sympathy but that doesn't mean it should spoil the fun the rest of the country.
The gambling industry is massively regulated and most of the big players in this country go above and beyond to fund the programs to assist those who can't control themselves.
Getting rid of sports advertising isn't going to stop people having a punt in the same way banning fag ads hasn't stopped people smoking. Changing the limits on FOBTs will mean folk will find somewhere else to spend their hard earned. I was out with one of my retail colleagues yesterday and we were discussing this very subject. The general consensus is that the fun police will get their way which will mean the strategy will change for the machines. Games that will still be allowed to have higher stakes will be promoted and the margins for the rest (which are very punter friendly currently) will simply be increased. The only loser will be the punter.
Those poor old folk who have to go to the bookies for their social hub.