Gambling "article" in the Guardian

[TheDazzler]

Very strange article in the Guardain today about gambling.
Some anonymous ex betting firm worker supposedly talking about the lack of ethics in the industry. None of it rings true. Lines like, "You don’t have gamblers working for a betting company" are clearly nonsense.
It just reads as a completely made up story. And why are they anonymous if they are an ex worker?
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/sep/11/inside-the-online-bookies#comments

[Karabiner]

Very strange article in the Guardain today about gambling.
Some anonymous ex betting firm worker supposedly talking about the lack of ethics in the industry. None of it rings true. Lines like, "You don’t have gamblers working for a betting company" are clearly nonsense.
It just reads as a completely made up story. And why are they anonymous if they are an ex worker?
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/sep/11/inside-the-online-bookies#comments

I stopped reading when I arrived at this - "online casinos have complex systems to detect consistent winners".

[Chompy]

Might be on my own here but it all looked about right to me.

[AndrewT]

I think the issue is that the article mentions bookies in the title, and the first line says online betting company, yet the article is clearly all about working on the casino side of things.

Betting companies are full of people who like to punt (little work got done in the Betfair office during Cheltenham week), poker companies with people who love the game (less than it used to be though) but very few of the people I worked with on the casino side were casino gamblers - to that end it is much more 'us and them' than the other businesses.

[arbboy]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/nils-pratley-on-finance/2017/sep/13/might-not-right-betting-firms-get-their-due-on-fixed-odds-machines

Another article today.  The guardian really loving the gambling industry at the minute.  Amazing given it was the lefties who started all this 20 years ago.

[SuuPRlim]

Gamblers don't work for gambling sites? Lol.

The guy doing the job interview said you'd have to have no morals to work here? That would literally  never ever happen.

Sophisticated methods to detect winners? Lol this guy took 11/4 3 hours before the race and it set off 2/1 ...ban him! I wouldn't call sophisticated:-p

Article is cleanly nonsense imo

[FUN4FRASER]

"Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JP Morgan, says bitcoin is a fraud that is only fit for use by drug dealers, murderers and people living in North Korea. He’s right."

It may turn out that bitcoin bombs but its just irresponsible journalism not to have a balanced argument and look at the merits of its potential success

written by Nils Pratley...surname kind of says it all

Arb...you should seriously get in touch with them and offer  a realistic view from a punters perspective ? because these writers are basically not knowledgeable on the industry

[tikay]

Gamblers don't work for gambling sites? Lol.

The guy doing the job interview said you'd have to have no morals to work here? That would literally  never ever happen.

Sophisticated methods to detect winners? Lol this guy took 11/4 3 hours before the race and it set off 2/1 ...ban him! I wouldn't call sophisticated:-p

Article is cleanly nonsense imo

Once I got to that part I stopped reading. I don't know the number - nobody does - but I'd be surprised if it less than 90% of Sports Betting staff who "like a bet".

[SuuPRlim]

Gamblers don't work for gambling sites? Lol.

The guy doing the job interview said you'd have to have no morals to work here? That would literally  never ever happen.

Sophisticated methods to detect winners? Lol this guy took 11/4 3 hours before the race and it set off 2/1 ...ban him! I wouldn't call sophisticated:-p

Article is cleanly nonsense imo

Once I got to that part I stopped reading. I don't know the number - nobody does - but I'd be surprised if it less than 90% of Sports Betting staff who "like a bet".

Yeh, I know 20-30 people on a social level who work for sports betting companies and actually, whilst none of them stand out as monster punters I can't think of a single one who would be in the bottom 50% of national degenerate levels, and if they didn't talk about betting non stop at the work I'd be pretty surprised.

[Doobs]

Gamblers don't work for gambling sites? Lol.

The guy doing the job interview said you'd have to have no morals to work here? That would literally  never ever happen.

Sophisticated methods to detect winners? Lol this guy took 11/4 3 hours before the race and it set off 2/1 ...ban him! I wouldn't call sophisticated:-p

Article is cleanly nonsense imo

Once I got to that part I stopped reading. I don't know the number - nobody does - but I'd be surprised if it less than 90% of Sports Betting staff who "like a bet".

Yeh, I know 20-30 people on a social level who work for sports betting companies and actually, whilst none of them stand out as monster punters I can't think of a single one who would be in the bottom 50% of national degenerate levels, and if they didn't talk about betting non stop at the work I'd be pretty surprised.

Isn't your sample going to be quite biassed.  Pretty much all the people I know reasonably well who work for gambling companies I met through a shared love of gambling.  I can't think of anyone I know from "normal" social circles who works for a gambling company.  Because I am unlikely to meet many suits, HR people and other back office people, and I have no idea how much gambling the lady behind the counter at ladbrokes does in her spare time.   

The article is written from the perspective of a marketing person and not a trading desk person and mentions the slots too.  As someone said before, people who work on the slots side are way less likely to have a slot machine habit than those who work on the trading desks.  Surely similar rules apply in marketing?  I wouldn't be taking much notice of the average person working in marketing at an insurance company to talk me about rate setting, reserving or the price of cryptos.  Dare say they'd have very little interest anyway.   

 

[SuuPRlim]

Isn't your sample going to be quite biassed. 

A sample of me, talking about people I know of course be somewhat biased, people I meet who are not interested in the same things I am will be less memerable to me I guess.

However, I've been at a  small sports betting trade show this week and been in a lot of social/businessey/networking situations with people I didn't meet before this week, after business talk the conversation is 90% dominated by football/golf/FPL and it's all about gambling/betting I met some guys the other night in a casino and they all bombed straight off to the roulette tables.

I'm sure there's a fair few people in the gambling industry who are not gamblers at all (I have a friend who runs a business with nearly 1/2 billion pounds turnover based around football markets who says he's watched 2 or 3 football games in the last 10 yrs) but this article claims that "NO-ONE" who works for gambling companies are gamblers themselves and we all know that this is totally un-true, actually is a straight 0%. Makes me feel like the guy didn't actually work for a gambling company in the type of roll he is suggesting he did (or she ofc.)

Surely no-one who has worked in gambling would say that believing it to be true. For me, this takes away the articles credibility some, combined with the fact that there's a few other things in there which don't add up I'm going to go n record and say I believe this is a made up experience....or it's a collection of several experiences that have been MASSIVELY mis-quoted.

[Doobs]

Isn't your sample going to be quite biassed. 

A sample of me, talking about people I know of course be somewhat biased, people I meet who are not interested in the same things I am will be less memerable to me I guess.

However, I've been at a  small sports betting trade show this week and been in a lot of social/businessey/networking situations with people I didn't meet before this week, after business talk the conversation is 90% dominated by football/golf/FPL and it's all about gambling/betting I met some guys the other night in a casino and they all bombed straight off to the roulette tables.

I'm sure there's a fair few people in the gambling industry who are not gamblers at all (I have a friend who runs a business with nearly 1/2 billion pounds turnover based around football markets who says he's watched 2 or 3 football games in the last 10 yrs) but this article claims that "NO-ONE" who works for gambling companies are gamblers themselves and we all know that this is totally un-true, actually is a straight 0%. Makes me feel like the guy didn't actually work for a gambling company in the type of roll he is suggesting he did (or she ofc.)

Surely no-one who has worked in gambling would say that believing it to be true. For me, this takes away the articles credibility some, combined with the fact that there's a few other things in there which don't add up I'm going to go n record and say I believe this is a made up experience....or it's a collection of several experiences that have been MASSIVELY mis-quoted.

I just think it is misinterpreted.  You read articles in the press on your specially subject and thet get things horribly wrong all the time.  Whether that is the writer, or some sub-editor, I don't know.

I agree it isn't plausible for traders, but I can believe a lot of people who work in the casino side really don't bother.  And of course people think everybody else thinks like they do all the time, so it is fairly plausible that marketing man really does think most of his colleagues are abstainers like him.

[SuuPRlim]

thats a good point.

[arbboy]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/oct/10/multimillionaires-making-packet-britain-gamblers

[SuuPRlim]

Ah good old Guardian, HOW DARE THIS RICH PERSON BUY STUFF WITH HIS MONEY!!!!

tl;dr version - guy stamps on the faces of the poor steals there money, forces them to sell their land for 1/20 of its value and then turns it into a golf course for rich people.

"After all, in this industry, the house always wins" is somewhat like saying "After all, Tesco always sell their vegetbales for more than they paid for them"

Agree FOBT's should gtfo though, very nasty things.

One of the less annoying guardian articles I've read in a while, came close to making some valid points. Arb said it best ages ago, Fred, Coral, Lads etc they stopped being proper bookies when they made so much from the FOBT's, they are kind of a joke now, IMO all they are good at now is skinning working class guys for the weeks wages on these dreadful machines.