Betting shops...
Discussion
martin84 said:
Town centres and the high street were destroyed years ago when they started pedestrianising everything, putting down 'shared spaces' and doing everything possible to force the motorist out of them. You cant park in towns anymore and if you can it costs you an arm and leg. Councils have gone out of their way to make their high streets car unfriendly and inconvenient for the motorist and make them nice light airy open spaces for pensioners to sit outside and have a coffee, under the guise of 'family atmosphere' and b
ks like that.
Totally agree, there has been a lot of collateral damage from the phoney war against the car from the likes of Presclot and those with the same view but more brain. Some town centres have seen the light from time to time, helped along in their 'radical' thinking by High Streets becoming deserted and businesses struggling to survive against out-of-town shopping centres where there is easy access and ample parking. Councillor Doofus has a lot to answer for. Oxford appeared not to notice that when it busised its town centre it went straight to the top of the polluted city league tables. ks like that.turbobloke said:
Totally agree,
With me? Hell shall freeze 
turbobloke said:
there has been a lot of collateral damage from the phoney war against the car from the likes of Presclot and those with the same view but more brain. Some town centres have seen the light from time to time, helped along in their 'radical' thinking by High Streets becoming deserted and businesses struggling to survive against out-of-town shopping centres where there is easy access and ample parking.
You're not wrong. I went back to where I grew up recently and was astounded by the change. You used to be able to park on the small high street for free, even in the depths of the recession it stood up reasonably well. Now its all been paved over with a 'shared space' at considerable cost to the taxpayer and its dead. Over 20% of the shops are empty and trade is struggling. You take away the parking - you destroy the business. Its as simple as that. Yes theres people milling around but nobodies buying anything, nobody has lots of shopping bags or anything. They've turned it into a place where pensioners and those without jobs will spend a day sitting outside, perhaps buying one cup of coffee and thats exactly what they've now got. The Councillors still refuse to accept its a bad development and blame all the closures on the economic downturn.turbobloke said:
Oxford appeared not to notice that when it busised its town centre it went straight to the top of the polluted city league tables.
Oxford hates the motorcar which is odd given the Citys car building heritage. There's usually two main arguments for pedestrianising/car limiting town centres and thats Pollution and Safety. Neither of which stack up. Theres nothing green about taking away all the parking spaces and forcing motorists to circle the town endlessly waiting to use one of the ever-decreasing spaces and banning cars from a road on the grounds of road safety is hardly productive, anywhere can be made safer by taking people out of them, even Afghanistan would be a safe utopia if nobody was in it. Nor is there anything green about putting diesel buses on the road all day with nobody on them. These people are just the anti-car brigade who said the same things before the convenient 'global warming' nonsense came along, only now they have a pseudo scientific stamp to apparently vindicate their views and give their pathetic campaigns more credibility. The reality is they just hate personal independence, they'd rather the bus timetable office got to decide when people can travel and to where. They hate the fact I was able to drive home from somewhere at 2am the other night, its un-natural to them.
Isn't it funny how every time a Council says they're going to 'revitalise the town!' it always involves restricting car use. Thats their answer for everything. Get rid of the car - make the town better, thats how they think. The motorist is the universal victim of every council 'improvement scheme.' Pointing out to these people that the motorist drives the economy apparently means you live in the past which is odd considering more people have cars now than in the past and comments about what Europe does usually get inserted into the hippy lefties response.
In times where people have less money, the Internet is gaining a bigger market share providing more value, how can it be sensible to exclude the majority of working people with money (motorists) from your town centre?
martin84 said:
I think people staying at home and gambling their savings away on the internet can be even worse because they're out of sight where you cant help them.
Absolutely.Since there is no handing over over money, no walk to the bookies, it's far easier to spend a lot.
Online Bingo is something I'm not happy about, even the adverts show it as being something social which is far from the truth of sitting in silence infront of a monitor.
"Online gambling" is IMO laughably daft. You're supposed to believe someone you can't see isn't cheating....
As for gaming machines (fruit machines) they are a curious and highly profitable aspect of life. Some years ago it was reckoned that 15% of pub-goers play the machime and 15% of those users put in almost all the money. So a small handful of people are putting in a great deal of money - typically the socially inadequate or misfits of one kind or another. In all types of gambling the people who make a lot of noise about their "winnings" are, over time, almost certainly losing a lot more than they are winning.
Gambler = Loser.
As for gaming machines (fruit machines) they are a curious and highly profitable aspect of life. Some years ago it was reckoned that 15% of pub-goers play the machime and 15% of those users put in almost all the money. So a small handful of people are putting in a great deal of money - typically the socially inadequate or misfits of one kind or another. In all types of gambling the people who make a lot of noise about their "winnings" are, over time, almost certainly losing a lot more than they are winning.
Gambler = Loser.
Mojooo said:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_971300...
The bit that caught my eye.... they describe themselves as 'retail leisure'.
Does betting really fall within the scope of retail or leisure?
The bookmakers appear to like blabbing on about how much tax they pay - I wonder how much of it is dole money!
It is a leisure activity (or supposed to be)The bit that caught my eye.... they describe themselves as 'retail leisure'.
Does betting really fall within the scope of retail or leisure?
The bookmakers appear to like blabbing on about how much tax they pay - I wonder how much of it is dole money!
You're all confusing Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) and fruit machines, it is the fobt which is the major cash cow
They're the only businesses willing to pay the rates so why should they be refused the right to trade?
They do pay a lot of tax, most think too much seeing as lots of trading rooms have relocated to Gib or Malta or threaten to every time they post results
Not everyone can/wants to gamble on the internet (not just a generation thing either)
If you did close then no doubt the casino lobby would be asking for 24 hour opening to enable them to fill the void left, which do you prefer?
Ozzie Osmond said:
"Online gambling" is IMO laughably daft. You're supposed to believe someone you can't see isn't cheating....
Why would they cheat? There are many companies that make a tonne of cash while sticking to the rules, so why jeopardise that in a sector that is so tightly regulated and monitored?Ozzie Osmond said:
"Online gambling" is IMO laughably daft. You're supposed to believe someone you can't see isn't cheating....
As for gaming machines (fruit machines) they are a curious and highly profitable aspect of life. Some years ago it was reckoned that 15% of pub-goers play the machime and 15% of those users put in almost all the money. So a small handful of people are putting in a great deal of money - typically the socially inadequate or misfits of one kind or another. In all types of gambling the people who make a lot of noise about their "winnings" are, over time, almost certainly losing a lot more than they are winning.
Gambler = Loser.
People who think online gambling - why the quotations, incidentally? - is daft because people cheat are either genuinely ignorant or badly misinformed. It's more tightly regulated than you could ever imagine.As for gaming machines (fruit machines) they are a curious and highly profitable aspect of life. Some years ago it was reckoned that 15% of pub-goers play the machime and 15% of those users put in almost all the money. So a small handful of people are putting in a great deal of money - typically the socially inadequate or misfits of one kind or another. In all types of gambling the people who make a lot of noise about their "winnings" are, over time, almost certainly losing a lot more than they are winning.
Gambler = Loser.
Do you really think somebody sits on the other end and fiddles the odds? The most cursory google would suggest otherwise (and save a very lengthy explanation).
Edited by iphonedyou on Thursday 19th April 11:59
iphonedyou said:
Generally, yes. But edge doesn't mean cheating, obviously.
Agreed. I guess people still do it in the hope they win the "big one".Interesting documentary a few weeks ago: http://youtu.be/rIoCV1IUtfQ
Iwatched it while doing in-game betting on a Real Madrid game.
Edited by Hoofy on Thursday 19th April 12:10
Hoofy said:
Agreed. I guess people still do it in the hope they win the "big one".
Interesting documentary a few weeks ago: http://youtu.be/rIoCV1IUtfQ
Iwatched it while doing in-game betting on a Real Madrid game.
No sound in work but shall watch when I get home, thanks! Probably while betting in running myself ha Interesting documentary a few weeks ago: http://youtu.be/rIoCV1IUtfQ
Iwatched it while doing in-game betting on a Real Madrid game.
Edited by Hoofy on Thursday 19th April 12:10
iphonedyou said:
Good luck!
Hope you do better than I did at the weekend
Thanks. Likewise! I say likewise, I did rather well, so I hope you do better than rather well. Hope you do better than I did at the weekend
Unless you're taking the opposite side to me, in which case, burn in hell. No offence.
Of course, I'm in and out like an undergraduate during Fresher's Week so it's possible for us both to be profitable and take opposite views.Ozzie is right in regards to the non sports and non financial betting. It is highly regulated but many are bent as hell and I can't understand why people would play them personally.
Martin is also right that high streets have been destroyed and left scrabbling over charity shops, fried chicken and other road kill vendors and bookies.
So, Hell must have frozen over.
Govts do like physical bookies along with other similar businesses as they do hoover black economy cash up and put it back into the taxation system. As well as clawing back benefit payments.
Ethically it's tough to argue for highstreet bookies although it's more sociable and civilised than punters in their pants at home.
But economically they do serve a valid purpose.
Martin is also right that high streets have been destroyed and left scrabbling over charity shops, fried chicken and other road kill vendors and bookies.
So, Hell must have frozen over.
Govts do like physical bookies along with other similar businesses as they do hoover black economy cash up and put it back into the taxation system. As well as clawing back benefit payments.
Ethically it's tough to argue for highstreet bookies although it's more sociable and civilised than punters in their pants at home.
But economically they do serve a valid purpose.
DonkeyApple said:
MX7 said:
What was the last betting company to be pulled up for being bent?
Like the FSA, the Gambling Commission does not publish 'advisories'. Just like the FSA, they issue quite a few . There is also the issue of accessing sites that are offshore.
The big gaming companies make money year in, year out. The additional revenue they could make by being underhanded isn't a consideration if the penalty is that they could lose their licence. They simply don't need to.
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