*interest rates

i admire all this idea of campaigns, unfortunately i dont think it would get very far. who really cares about punters who are taking money off of bookies. you wont get much sympathy, even if you do get a 2 minute mention on tv.

i remember a good while back that i suggested bookmakers should stop giving out bog. i was shouted down by some as a turkey shouting for christmas.

i'll say it again. i dont think bookies would be closing anywhere as near as many many accounts if they didnt offer bog.

it gives punters too big an advantage.

i dont see why the bookies dont try this before resorting to closing accounts...

The big problem bookmakers will have at some point in the future is the same problem that has decimated the public houses and that is competition from other forms of leisure and as more and more become computer literate and the television set top box market develops into truly interactive tv , the availability of direct comparisons of prices on sporting events will mean the exchange will take over the lions share of gambling business.

The hope that the niche market of FOBT will maintain their high street presence is a forlorn one as this product is found now openly in a virtual form on   many hundreds of gambling Internet sites globally and the competition here is even greater.

The time bookmakers decided to turn their back on winners and the concept of fairness will one day be a legacy of a dis-functional form of organized gambling revenue that has had its Day !

I reckon the Mythology that the bookmakers run by is slowly but surely becoming open knowledge and is mentioned many time in the press but how they can get away with claiming a chap walked into shop and was allowed to place £500,000 on a horses is a total farce as they will not accept that sort of bet at all and someone should try it out and expose them, would make great television!

artie, northern light, if I want to buy william hill shares @ say £2.30, which was the price quoted, and thousands of others want to buy at the same price, everyone is limited at that price, it gradually increases, its called supply and demand,

shall we tell watchdog the stock exchange aint playing the game.

How would you deal with a punter wanting half a million on big bucks ? price drop or refusal

If ya win here they tell ya fukk off.....if ya lose.....they give ya tickets for events and send ya a bottle of wine at christmas.....no difference from bookies....

Are you saying some people are not allowed to buy shares as they've shown a profit from their activites in the past, Barry?

Hopeless analogy.

Bf_fanatic is a nutjob.....everybody knows its mugs only on betfair......simple rule.....if they leave ya play.....ya aint making it pay.....

Whatever bookies do.....one thing they dont do.....is keep up to 60% of yer money.....if ya back a few winners......

And we all really know who the charge hits the hardest and its not punters!

It hit the winning punters.....the ones that could win on average about £500 a week.....those heavy hitters.....

offer unfair prices then arb it where fair prices are on offer suported by the general public, nothing changes, except charge rates

My family have been into boookmaking and I could work out over-rounds in nappies mate.

If did a scientific report into all aspects of addictive gambling it can be found that its the adrenalin rush(feeling of risk) that is the addictive component , rather like why a base jumper or skier tries ever more daring stunts to achieve maximum rush. Now with betting you have to have time to work out the effects of the results of the risk that you have just gone through or you can become trapped and indeed addicted to the high levels of adrenalin in your body which will override the ability to think your way out of the heightened state of mind.

The Bookmakers are fully aware of this trapping effect of Heightened state of adrenalin ad promote it wrongly by having now 2 minute intervals between racing events and the bombardment virtual   betting events to speed up the  process and thus give punters even less time to think there way out of the increasing feeling of loss via calculating the risk or taking flight, another primitive bio-state for survival. the FOBTs work on the same principle and feed the adrenalin into now young minds at minute intervals almost as if on a drip feed and my heart goes out to all those that are stuck into hat lifestyle that is thrown at them by very high street firm now .

The fact this is allowed to go on in out streets instead of designated casinos is not good for the our culture generally and is pulling the next generation away from normal sports betting which is played as second, no third fiddle in the hope of evading levy payments.

If the government cant act against this exploitation its merely because they themselves look too gaining more tax are are Dependant from this resource instead of giving young people hope, teaching and jobs which is what is really needed but never supplied by repeated poorly performing governments that have let all the main sources of commerce and trade in this country slip behind Europe and the rest of the world by ignorant past over-taxation of British based companies.

Phew as you can see its a complex social problem and it doesn't just involve bookmakers it involves all of us and future generations to come.

Their simply is no comparison between a bookmaker and an exchange for many reasons, period.

Totally agree with your comments SBTW, its pointless us all complaining about the unfairness of companies polices and practices when its been this way since year nod and anyone using accounts with bookmakers is more or less saying watch every move and bet I make.

Its not impossible to win from the bookmakers and many bets are made at such places on a regular basis.

Recently a horse on the AW was backed down from 40/1 to sevens in the offices then drifted to 14/1 and still won nicely and these weren't account bets but carefully placed bets from organized groups and this has been effective to the count of millions of GBP over the years. The bookmakers like to think they have every kind of security thats possible but at the end of the day they are open to risk just as much as any other form of business and an attack on Bookmakers would only become a much larger moral issue circling Gambling of which its best not to rock the boat.

Not while the boat is packed full of sardines ready for prospective sharks to dine on that is.

Its painfully obvious that they only want Gamcare students in the shops and its winners down the winding road.