Looking at the bigger picture , what does everyone think about online casino's ?
The fob's are visible , you can see how much people are putting in , you can see the clustering of
betting shop's to accommodate the vulnerable in society.
What you do not see are the people at home , those with time on their hands , bored , who would never
go in a bookies, but because it's anonymous and in the privacy of their own home , can do £1000's and £1000's
in a very short time. There must be loads of horror stories where wealthy widow's have lost fortunes on gaming sites
chasing losses but the focus is purely on fobs and on Betting Shops.
Without doubt the bookies are just playing lip service to the Government and there are certainly issues with the
fob's but to tackle these without looking at online gaming is taking a one sided view.
On a practical level if the bookmakers were serious in dealing with this problem then they would not allow the fob's
to accept debit cards. I know of one instance where a £1 punter on the horses put £11k in a fob over 2 days before
barring himself. If the punter kept having to go to the bank to withdraw money I doubt he would have done his dough,
or at least not 11k and not in 2 days !
The horse has bolted as far as the fob's are concerned , a bit like betfair in a way ( Just think it's wrong that you can lay
a horse to lose , it's open to abuse ) , so would be very surprised if they were banned in any shape or form.
Would suggest around 10-15% of betting offices would close within 6 months if it did happen but just can't see the
Government giving up on all that revenue stream.
And don't get me started on those bloody adverts.......Game On
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