place yer bets

[Crunchy Col]

FRAGRANT LAD 7/2
AUNTIE MOLLY 12/1
LORETT'S COCK 15/1
OH JUPITER 22/1
STRONG DISCIPLE 33/1
URBAN FOOL 100/1

[Deleted]

Urban Fool

[tory]

Urban Fool.

I don't bet, but with one exception - I restrain myself to having a flutter of £50 or so at international football tournaments, spreading that across several teams.

At Euro 2004 I put £20 on Greece at 66/1 and won over £1200.

When I went to Las Vegas, I had $20 and won $300 with the fifth quarter I put in a slot machine. I spent the winnings getting smashed.


I have a real quandary with gambling/betting shops on the high street in Britain. The truth of the matter is that gambling is a cultural thing that is part of working class culture to a certain extent, but the damage it causes is self-evident.

Banning gambling/betting would just push it underground and of course, the money made for tax is useful.

There is also the simple fact that the stock market is essentially gambling too, albeit with more data to play with in terms of potential outcomes.

[Crunchy Col]

Betting shops absolutely fascinate me.

I went through a period in the mid 90s when I was on the dole in Whitehaven, drinking every afternoon with my mate Howad, and we used to pop into Ladbrokes and occasionally stick a fiver on a horse. I don't think we ever won anything. But the place was stuffed with these fat fellas sitting quietly smoking - and for one minute every hour they'd go absolutely wild, standing up and shouting and swearing at the monitors or at the staff behind the counter. We could never work out if there was some kind of dodgy lark going on but many of them had wads of notes they'd bang on the table to square them up. That killed me.

Casinos are even more interesting. We used to go to Wolves casino very late Sunday night/Monday morning when we could withdraw £50 from the ATM again, and sit at the blackjack tables until we were politely told to move on. The place was shabby, the characters you saw were eye-opening. We won small-time now and again, of course we were always down but not by a hell of a lot.

If you don't get anything out of the experience then you're wasting your time.

[tory]

My wife did some PR for a casino at Stratford when she was working for an agency.

On the opening day, the first person in the queue was a Chinese woman with FIFTY GRAND IN NOTES in her handbag. Spent it all in the first hour.

I'd say that the rush from winning at gambling is probably one of the best you can get, which is why of course it remains such a huge issue.

[~ / % ? *]

Gambling, Luck and Numbers have such a specific meaning in Asian Cultures that Gambler's Anonymous (GA) (in the US) has specific chapters and approach for it. Even the general treatment approach is different and much more nuanced than for the average (though no less destructive) Anglo gambler.

[tory]

Oh I'm sure it is. I believe that Macau generates bigger revenue than Las Vegas.