does anyone here work/has worked in a betting shop?

You could have come and worked for me!! i had my own independant shop and loved it back in the day, as soon as fobt's appeared and sis started getting greedy knowing they could charge extortionate amounts for the coverage it was time to sell up to a larger concern for me, loved it although took some right hammerings, went onto work for coral but just wast the same, i can only reiterate what most people have already said about working for a major bookie in shop, look elsewhere mate and incidentally why do you think working for there are so many vacancies for the majopr companys?? sometimes its better the devil you know, good luck though in whatever you decide.

Tell you a good one this clown of a DOM suggested in front of the Area Manager - that all Staff should register with Retail Eyes (the mystery shopper firm that Hills use) so you would know when the mystery shoppers were in the vicinity and you would be prepared for them.

What a cabbage.

some of the older staff i speak to at various bookies over the years sound totally demoralised. years and years of backstabbing, being undermined, dealing with bad punters etc.

Just out of interest what are FOBT's DOM's and EPOS

I'm glad someone else asked that question

fixed odds betting terminals..district operations manager, EPOS is the till..and ALBOS is the monitor the staff look up prices et al

fobt is foxed odds betting terminal, epos is electronic point of sale not sure what doms are though

haha does wind me up when people abbreviate lol

cheers mate a little wiser now

never had one only ever worked for an independant, they sold out to a larger firm, came in with a loak of **** targets on how many bets,how much take we sould have etc etc had to get out of there, now work for a bank where its even more target driven lol but atleast that is something that can be targeted more so than betting lol

above the DOMS are the AOM, area operations manager, and then regional controller....god knows where this industry would be without the machines...total farce tbf

Looks like there are too many chiefs.

Cowboys tbf bernieboy...

I was quite fortunate myself the firm i worked for hading upgraded to epos so was still on the old ott machine (never learnt what that meant) much better more fun and I am one of a few people in the area i live that an settle using additional point and crash blocks, still occasionally cover a day or 2 for a small independant and enjoy it.

I'm a bit behind the times, do they not have someone behind the tills who works out the winning bets manually

if the till breaks down they have a machine as giggsy refers..to put the figs in and work out the return..

its the way they used to do it up until the late 90's

does make you laugh when you see the manager putting in a 2/1 winner for say a tenner or the like and then looking up for reassurance when it says 30 return..

i only really bothered if it was awkward fractions and atleast 3 winners, you get to know that your returns are overtime for singles and doubles

epos - electronic point of sale
fobt- don't know, think its the gaming machines
doms- I'd guess at district over managers, again don't know

interesting thread this.

I have never worked in the bookies but know two shop managers who have left the industry after 20 years service in the last two weeks. I would never go to work in the bookies after the things they have told me.  Utter filth bookies.

shambolic working environment...

I guess it's driven by greed and sad people wanting to become managers to boast their over inflated ego's. Oh well I was thinking of working part time in a shop to earn a few extra quid, not sure I can be bothered if all this nonsense goes on, I might end up chinning some jobsworth lol.

if you keep your fists in check bernie and it will be difficult, try a part time gig in a quiet shop with some half decent regulars whilst you look for something else....

Problem is I live in Charlton, SE London, so I don't think I will find a quiet bookies lol.

Some shops I go in to seem ok till about 1800, it's after that when it becomes really boring and a true test!

Honestly - when the Football etc... is live on terrestrial tv and the broadcasting lot ain't changed the box right at head office so you cannot watch it the test really begins.

You will have live prices for Hearts v Spurs on one screen and Attenbroughs Summer of Wildlife next to it and the worst thing is nobody at the Firm on the RETAIL side of things seems to understand that is horrific for business and downright stupid and the reason for that is that they do not have a clue about the game at all.

will be kicking off in that neck of the woods...currently based in the east end (London) and its a shambles over here so no doubt similar where you are..

giggsey
20 Feb 12 20:34 Joined: 06 Aug 11 | Topic/replies: 8 | Blogger: giggsey's blog
I was quite fortunate myself the firm i worked for hading upgraded to epos so was still on the old ott machine (never learnt what that meant) much better more fun and I am one of a few people in the area i live that an settle using additional point and crash blocks, still occasionally cover a day or 2 for a small independant and enjoy it.
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Crikey I was settling bets 25 years ago (3000 on a Saturday) and if I was still using the crash block there would be punters that have died of old age.Move with the times - the first ott machine was a godsend.The fact is though how many punters are getting paid wrong amounts because the staff behind the counters do not have a clue.Not all bets can be settled automatically...

try digibet they were opening a few down lodnon way a few years back seemed a decent firm when i was looking round

i could settle 2-3k quite easily just make sure race by race bets settled first, easy folk said national was really tough where i worked it wasnt tbf

i was stating if theres 3 or less winners its a piece of piss to work out in your head

much easier when you know your decimals as well to be fair

i knew the decimals but when i trained to settle the owner wouldnt accept anything other than fraction settling even though decimal is easier (just did what he said at head office then what I wanted in the office lol)

work for powers, eh...it's easy it depends on your personailty. If you take nothing personal and feel not paid enough to stress it's fine, really depends how well you get along with who your working with. But there's huge turnover alright it's really not for some people, no designated break I work near full weeks every week and have no contract, was on an 8hr one remember when the christmas bonues was coming and i was told you got double your pay from the previous week and I got 50e? wages off most weeks, 5mins late 5mins off the wage so if there's a problem logging and and your report it you'd still have to chase them to get the 15mins or half hour it took to resolve, I dunno wouldn't reccomend it

I wrote that without looking woops

not just who you work with sabu you need to get along with your regulars as they the people your gonna be spending most the days with

You cannot settle at decimal odds .If you did every punter over the age of 20 would question you.

25 years ago I managed some of the roughest betting shops in Salford, East Manchester and Moss Side. Glad I did it for the experience but when I think of the stand up rows I had with lads I knew were carrying weapons I cringe.
As others have said it can be incredibly dull; you face abuse on an almost daily basis and the rewards aren't that great. In Beswick, Manchester we used to take 4000+ bets on a Saturday, nearly all cr@p multiples in scrawly writing, and I used to settle them manually with a calculator because the machines back then were sh1te.
An attempted hold-up was also a bit scary.
Would I go back? Not a prayer. Stay clear would be my advice.

Pandorica..Did you work for Stanley Racing ? I had a week in a betting shop in Hulme and there was a giant West Indian who ruled the roost.He dressed like Shaft on TV (big leather coat) and if he asked for a price he got it !!

Ladbrokes HFT - Claremont Rd, Moss Side, and another smaller in MS quite near by, the name of which escapes me.

I had a spell in the area but they would not send me to Moss Side.They said I would not be able to handle it.Mind you I was only a young fella !!

We used to get more money working there. It wasn't called danger money, but that's what it was.

Back to Salford.I had a spell managing a shop there that was robbed four times in a week.And all for the large colour TV on the stand in the corner.You cannot give them away nowadays......Happy Days.....

Had a spell in Belfast .God I was so young.A fella called in one day and asked for £50 for ladders.I told him that we didn't need any but luckily there was no single manning in those days and the cashier dived into the till...Happy Days....

I think my brain's addled. All the shop names that used to trip off the tongue; they don't any more. In Salford and surrounds Great Clowes St was one and there was another with "Great" in the name that John Virgo used to frequent cos it was opposite a snooker club.

i work for corals after they took over my local indie, finger print to sign in os the latest thing

all managers and deputys recently sent on a 'machine workshop' to help us understand the games better so we can get customers on more provitable games like key bet roulette and slots rather than standard roulette.
daily emails from area managers about 'alien' settled bets (bets that cant be typed in so manualy settled)

new area manager has no industry expieriance and when our biggest customer self excluded he said can we loose the paperwork and try to get him back in by talking to him

good side is obviously finding a decent shop with nice customers and sky for the sports.
pay is poor to start with but ok once shop manager in a decent shop.

I had the 'pleasure' of working for Corals from 2007 to 2010, In the end I had to leave as I was at the point of wanting to kick most of the customers and my area managers heads in.

A few good examples of why,

1. A really massive guy who was fairly regular lost over 3k one afternoon on the Machines, and then decided to smash the machine up in a rage, he then threatened to knock me out and started demanding his money back. I called the police and told him he was banned for life. However area manager stepped in and said as long as he paid for repairs and apologised he would be allowed back in, as we didn't want to lose his business!

2. The Industry now is solely focused on getting everyone on the machines for as long as possible. I was instructed by area manager that during quiet periods I was to 'teach' people how to play the machines by giving them free demo's to get them hooked, was also told to aim for people that didn't play them.

3. Constantly working 8am untill 10:30pm. On occasions I'd work the whole day alone, with somebody covering me for a 2 hour break in the middle.

As a few people have already mentioned sports and betting knowledge is no longer required in this Industry. Now the firms only want dolly birds ideally from retail backgrounds.

i once played an arcade game online, quickest free 20 lost ever - reading this i can see why theres such a focus on them.

Hey Suso, what area of the land did you work?

In and around the Derby area.

Where's my ****ing rant disappeared to? **** you Betfair censors!

When and why did they bring in the finger printing?????

That Company have no logic, What a total waste of money!.

suso30, we now have a 'game a day' to learn so we can teach customers.

the finger printing is called SAM, not sure what its short for, thats how they pay you now by the min.

Not a million miles from me. I've left last year. They don't know yet but they keep paying me so I'll keep taking the money.
I had a great shop in terms of it's state and location but mainly cos' the customers and community great.
Had to leave though because it just aint worth the hassle and if I had stayed I would have been knocking my "superiors" heads in

the machines managers are getting daily reports if we dont complete the game a day task and disaplinarys have been mentioned.

Finger printing came in November. Understandable really. Only clocking in and out like many others. It's not for me, one of the reasons I went, but I suppose it's fair for a business to expect it's staff to be there when hey are paying them. (Not being paid by business for work done is another subject completely for many though)

Yeah I'd heard about the game days, Do your shops now stay open until half 9 on a Sunday yet?

But that makes no sense at all, paying staff by the minute, as I would have earned more that way!
I remember when they cut the working hours from 8am to 815 start, but I would still come in at 8 as it was Impossible to get the shop ready in 15 minutes!

gwladys. whole shop team in for disciplinary for not doing that near me so I've heard recently.
Also, SIX shop managers off sick with stress in my patch (20ish shops) LOL

suso, get in 5 mins late, 15 mins docked. Work over half an hour. Not even a THANK YOU

only payed from 8.15 mate, even if signed in early.
if late closing and counting money unlucky only payed until 9.45, cleaning the shops sat/sundays aswell for extra £1.50

my shop is 8.30-9.30 mon-fri
           8.30-9.00 sat
           11.00-6.00 sunday
so not too bad compared to others

It sounds crazy that in an industry where the margins are massive, that the wages and conditions are so poor. one would think theyd cotton onto the idea that hiring staff & training them us costs time & money. even the banks have got that one right with their front line staff.

tbf I don't think margins are massive are they?

well my shop is quite and still made 4k on the machine last week so margins seem ok

It depends on locale etc but I was always under the impression that the margin was not as high as clothing chains etc, and that's why bookies cannot compete for rent and rates on the best places in town. Hey, I may be completely wrong tho

over the counter the margins are small, the expensives are massive but the machines keep the shops going imo.

good shout giggsy I forgot about that i'm on relief so go all over the place I don't think I could stand same shop everyday

Worked in Ireland through college which has shorter opening hours in winter, no FOBT's and decent enough pay €11 hr for one level up from a cashier. If your a student it's a good saver in summer with late racing but still I would advise people against it full time and the UK is meant to be much worse then Ireland.

I'd say I've worked days in more then 20 shops around my area and I worked with some very good people who should be doing better things with themselves. As everyone says on here District managers and area managers are often ex-cashiers themselves and seem keen to bring their years of experience in the industry to intimidate current staff. I had an issue with them where management had told shops not to give me hours and them then claiming I had rang in sick and withholding attendance bonuses at the end of the year. It took letters and threats of involving outside organisations to get paid more of as a matter of principal. I know they did this to other people who in the end just accepted it.

I would single man every Sunday and have an hour taken off for a break that I wasn't able to take the DM had been quick to get rid of people who closed the shop for the hour break that they weren't getting paid for.

Busy days are good, Cheltenham and Grand National and the generosity and good nature of some punters surprised me I must say. But days counting the hours down watching Kempton and Sprint Valley will curb your enthusiasm for the job.

Squigs,

Who did you work for cos I know our branches are all unionised and they wouldn`t dare do any of that **** to them.

Magic Sign, We have unionised members and most of us part timers aren't unionised. The union talked against single manning and against the end of extra money on Sundays but did still didn't resolve it.

magic sign security for staff in ireland is nothing short of shocking imo

may have been 11 few years ago quigs but now I know people managing not getting that. I was on 11 something 4yrs ago went back to college and came back on 9e an hour

Oh right.Have spoken to a couple of the Irish lads and,basically,it was a case of when they were told to jump it was "and the second word is OFF" whereas with us it`s "how high?".Plus,last year they had a 5% pay rise.Us? Nothing!

To be honest,I think if everyone who joins a bookie also joined a union you could well have a better working environment.And I`m not an advocator of unions.Just think they would be the answer to this.

I work for William Hill and am trying my hardest to get out asap, only been there for 3 years and even in that time iv gone from enjoying my job to hating it, disgusting company to work for, i dont know of any member of staff who is happy, the treatment of staff is appalling, they have no regards for the quality of life of their staff, i was nice for far to long and just got the piss took out of me, done favour after favour and one day said that stops, progression is promised but very slow, if you question anything your set upon like the enemy, they dont recognise a union and the district managers wouldnt known AP Mccoy if he kicked them in the fannys, the jobs nothing to do with sport, all about FOBTS, anyone who wants a decent bet wont get one, they promote staff snitching on each other so they dont have to do the work themselves, more and more things to do with less and less time

I HATE THE COMPANY AND WHAT IT STANDS FOR, WHEN I LEAVE IM GOING TO FLEECE THEM FOR AS MUCH AS I CAN DUE TO HOW THICK THE STAFF ARE

know the feeling cocker and so do many more

I was on €10.90 till January. I had come in as an MTA as I had worked for independents before hand. They do make experienced cashiers manage shops though without the pay. But the pay rates for job titles has not dropped, just that Sunday and bank holiday money has been reduced.

The union wasn't effective. The union don't keep their members in the loop and thus much of what's going on is reliant on what is heard through the grapevine.

cpl of right pricks up in Otter House Squigs

I might need them for a CV and a reference one day so it's diplomatic regarding Otter House

Ah well I paid for college through them, never came in late, never fiddled a red cent but I'm not going to miss it and I couldn't recommend it as a career path long term. I'll have to make sure they will send me insight magazines to me in future so I can keep abreast of all the fascinating developments.

Another coral-ite here! Would like to advise the Op against a betting shop job unless he's really struggling! And then even if he does it isn't the most secure, with written/final warnings been handed out left right and centre for breaches of the ever growing list of petty procedures it only takes one error of judgement and the serving  of a 20 year old who looks 25 but because you didn't 'think 21' and ask for id then goodbye!  Fobts now making up around 50 to 70% of a shops weekly profit, to qoute from my recent machines workshop 'without them your shops wouldn't be open'. Ever likely, I don't know how some of the customers put up with walking in a shop asking for a price on a horse and by the time the half soaked woman cashier has found it you've lost 2 points and are told oh you can only have 200 on it, no wonder over the counter bets are in decline (excluding football).  And then the last good thing going for us staff of been able to sneak off at 330 - 4 o clock when supposed to be working till 5 is taken away from us by a b a s tard finger print reader clocking in/clocking out machine!

Someone should report Coral to the gambling commission and question there so called social responsibility.
They are forcing staff to play machines (LAGAD), and getting them to try to force FOBT play onto customers whether they want to or not.They are treating staff and customers with utter contempt.
The new Area Manager with no industry experience is one of the most clueless buffoons you will ever meet. No IDEA whatsoever on running a succsful LBO, and an insult to any longstanding staff who know what they are doing, having to listen to his salesman bullocks.

DONT

went in a coral earlier and literally not 1 person in there! 20 minutes before kick off aswell, i got an 18/1 both teams to score winner off them though

darkie returns, are we talking about the same area manager with no industry experiance? and the LAGAD is very risky imo, i bet a few staff will start playing the machine more with there own money after becoming hooked

Out of interest, how exactly do they force customers to play these FOBT's? Either a customer is interested or he isn't. Reading about how much profit they make from them, which surely equates to being highly unlikely to win on them, i've got no interest. So if i was in a shop, how exactly would they force me to play one.

not forced biscuit1979 but told to sell the more profitable games like key bet roulette and slots, told to go into the shop and talk to machine players and give them demo's on the profitable games and talk up the good points, free tea/coffee ect.
machines manager getting weekly breakdown of all games played and if the shop is not improving they want to know why and what you have been doing to push the machines.

biscuit1979, if you meent eh staff they are forced to play the machine to learn the games to sell to the customers.
each day coralhq sent a new game for the staff to learn, if not completed by all staff disaplinarys have been mentioned

You should consider working for an online Internet bookmaker.I worked for one for 7 years until the economic crisis struck.Shift work is available, pay is quite good and the job provides you with the chance to become familiar with computer software and hardware.Many positions available ranging from customer service, technical support, updating the site on a daily basis,translation service if you are bilingual etc. etc.Best job I ever had, looked forward to it ever day for 7 years.Often worked Sundays for 2.5 times basic salary and got to watch top sports events live on a daily basis(often ran the live betting portal).The collapse of the Euro did us in as most of our punters were from mainland Europe.

Fair enough gwladys, i did mean the customers. Just wondered what the bosses said/did if a customer simply wasn't interested in playing the machine. Geniunely don't know why so many people play them as from the profits they make, it's clear the customer doesn't win very often.

i would not recommend you work for w h a bad firm with bosses who have not got a clue.all the decent district managers i have worked for have either left been sacked or moved to different parts where they dont have to deal with shops anymore.they dont let managers manage they want staff on shop floor for 5 hours at a time even if shop is busy and dont care about staff safety they victimise you if you say anything against their ideas you have a bad attitude.the contract is worded so even if your cone is 30 hours they can demand you work overtime and you are to be on call all the time for them sorry to put such a bad picture on this as when i first joined 19 years ago it was a real good,fun job to be in.

well you cant force them to play it bisciut1979, but staff are told to cross sell (like the recent festival of gaming corals had) put a £5 footie bet on and get a free matched fiver on the machine ect, everyting is aimed at getting the normal punter onto these things.

they thing that shocked me was on one of the recent 'machine workshops' alot of the staff really liked the machine and said there good fun ect , one told a story about a regular who used to back the horses to about a tenner a day and walk out, he's now lost everything through the FOBTS, did anyone force him to do it NO, but he might have been encouraged to play them by demo's or machine comps.

Must be some Perks in the Job at Least G/Buster

Having read all this I'm just glad I don't have towork for one of these vile companies

Biscuit, I should have said forced staff and pestered customers to play.

As Gwladys says all focus is on getting punters onto FOBS. They dont realise they will potentially drive custom away with the hard sell b*llocks.
Nothing worse.

the bubble will burst with fobts like poker the bookies know this as not profit but turnover is going down and as they have blown out all the reasonable staking horse/dog/football etc punters they are crapping themselves where money is going to come from in a few years time.

oh ye and it is against gamb commision rules to encourage someone to bet but they say we are offering .if we were offering why so much pressure ?

They Fobs are keeping a lot of People in Jobs at The Moment take them Away half the work Staff would be looking for work else/where

or they could start taking decent bets over the counter again

Spot ON

half the staff are looking to get out now anyway and we were 3 times as busy than we are now before these bloody things came in and when evening racing came in at least we still had a life for 8 months of the year but because of fobts no life.

Sad really ain't it how many people really do dislike who they are working for and what it is all about

sevey..Drug dealers keep quite a lot of people in jobs too !! I had a dream that FOBTs were banned and the shareholders of the major "Bookmakers" demanded that they make up the turnover by actually taking bets...Then I woke up !!