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Child Item

What's the story with lads in the bookies?

pappyodaniel

Every day, I pass the bookies and its the same lads going in and out, smoking fags outside the door, running in and out of the sh!thole pub next door and the ones who have a job double parked to do a quick bet.

I'm In my 40s now and I still can't get the appeal of this lifestyle.

Simple question, what the f#ck is the appeal of this past time?

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Lewis_Benson

There was an auld lad in our estate years ago where i grew up, had a gambling addiction. He put his lovely new volvo estate up in a game of poker and lost it, imagine explaining that one when you get home.

He drove around in a little banger fore years after that.

fortwilliam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122874721#Comment_122874721

Sentiment is the same..
I need to bet, I don't know what to bet on, I'll use this "bet-builder" to help me decide… terrible

Buddy Bubs

I know a good few guys deep into it, they can't go for a pint without running in and out of the bookies. All smiles and telling you what they've won but a few of them will admit that there's not a single one of them up but others won't admit that.

As I say to them, they're renting and buying premises, paying thousands of staff, electricity and IT systems, employing university graduates in finance and maths and IT, paying lawyers and accountants and their highly paid management and paying tax and they are still making phenomenal profits in the tens of millions each year and you think you're sitting in the pub milling pints putting on bet after bet and think you're outsmarting them?

Lewis_Benson

It also seems to be mostly a single man's life, or a separated husband life.

Must be very depressing

Buddy Bubs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122875119#Comment_122875119

The lads I know are in relationships, I'd say many of the older single or separated guys are in that position because of their gambling. And their drinking. I like the odd pint but these guys just have this lifestyle now and won't get out of it.

The pub owner near us has a few apartments beside the pub, his regulars rent from him. You see them early Saturday morning walking from the apartments to the shop to buy a paper then on to the pub and in and out of the bookies.

We call it the boulevard of broken dreams.

mazdamiatamx5

You can tell that these guys are regular losers (from the bookies' point of view, 'valued customers') by the fact that they're always in the bookies, year after year, and never manage to win enough for a lifetime trip to Vegas or whatever.

Bookmakers are a pox on society.

dxhound2005

We could learn about money management from them. A taxi into town to get their dole on Monday morning. Spend the rest of the week drinking pints, smoking and doing bets. And getting taxis in and out of town. At least that's the story I heard from a few sources.

jackboy

A bookies opened in the local small town about 10 years ago. It led to a few marraige failures and people losing everything. When the core group of gamblers were bled dry the bookies had to shut up shop as there was not enough remaining business to keep open. It was only open for a short few years but left behind a trail of carnage.

cj maxx

The only ones I heard as bookies regulars were townies . When I was living in town I might pu a few small bets on but never a regular . The bigger thing I saw was pubs ringing in bets to the bookies . It became easy to sit with your pint and lose money .
I’ve never found it attractive but people are happy to think they’re making extra free money on the side . I’m sure if they counted it up they’re still losing

Baasterd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122869127#Comment_122869127

The thing is we are all gamblers just with different levels of risk aversion, some people are biased towards never taking much of a risk at all, they don't win much but they don't lose much, does not matter if they know much.

Then you have the less risk averse, the ones that know a lot can do ok, the ones that know little get roasted over and over again.

I'd say the above is more a reflection of where you are on the spectrum that being more of less likely depending on where you are.

If that makes sense :)

Its the Egg Chicken problem!

Lazare

Bookies are the definition of grim.

I remember going to work every morning through Lucan village and seeing the same oul fellas waiting outside the Boyles for it to open, only to go in and spunk their money on virtual horses. Absolute grimness.

Or the young lads smoking outside a Ladbrokes on Friday evenings, despair in their eyes. brokeLads.

whisky_galore

Re the apps, listening to a podcast from the US about gambling (where our very own Flutter aka Paddy Power/Betfair and others had been lobbying intensively) if the app senses that you're using a system and you're winning too often, it automatically locks you out!

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122878054#Comment_122878054

Yerman in the video dxhound posted mentions he can only bet 2 quid. The fact that they can lock people out for winning should tell people all they need to know about this industry

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122878162#Comment_122878162

The bookies don't want winners, only losers.

Ans sadly there is no shortage of supply for them.

castletownman

Nothing more depressing than being at work, driving past the same two bookies (one directly across the road from the other, and both directly across from a pub down the side path) perhaps 3/4 times a day every day, and seeing the same lads there outside smoking or sneaking in from the pub.

I do like Cheltenham, that does me for the year in terms of gambling and it depends if I have other things on, but I'll never forget seeing a bookies head (broken marriage, on the dole of course) bedecked out in a suit for the day of gambling as if it was a special occasion and not just a continuation of his weekly habits. Fooling no-one lad.

[Deleted User]

The Bookies are scum of the earth. If you are a consistent winner online like 55% win rate and 45% lose rate and making an consistent profit they will close your account.

No verification is needed to deposit money on all betting sites. However if you end up winning they will request all types of documents and ID to get paid out and delay it as long as they can hoping you cancel the withdrawl and end up losing the lot.

There the scum of the earth.

I go in and do my five euro accum every week on five or six teams on one of the machines in there as find it enjoyable as love the premier league and football in general but some of the stuff you see in there is crazy. You can see the addiction in their faces when watching the races or playing virtual roulette. You feel sad for them.

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122875175#Comment_122875175

jesus thats grim Buddy…

JupiterKid

The gambling industry is all about feeding off those with a gambling addiction, which can be incredibly destructive. Of course, they will tell you that it's just "entertainment" and to "gamble responsibly." 😏

They are nothing more than leeches and contribute nothing positive to society. It is no coincidence that bookies tend to be located close to, or beside, pubs. I've seen just how destructive gambling can be with a mate who got into serious difficulties and almost lost everything in his life before finally getting help.

I'm also concerned about the growth in online gambling where you can gamble away your paycheque in a matter of minutes. Those adverts on night TV for gambling platforms should be banned outright.

The house always wins.

pale rider

I was raised in a west of Ireland town riddled with bookies, still is like many towns but posher places now.

there is a hole in the road from the pub to the bookies and back and not just men.

I would be embarrassed to be seen going in, I think I’m all the better for that, it’s very sad how many lives and relationships get damaged by this habit.

mitchelsontour

Unfortunately I knew a lad who got in so deep he took his own life.

Have a family member who is a gambling addict, broken marriage and poor relationship with his adult kids, lost his job and multiple rehab stints and when I meet him it's did you see such and such race and a haunted look in his eyes

The bookies have gotten their claws in to the USA now and will reap major profits from the online side of things with their multi prop bets on the NBA and NFL which are prime for that type of in game bets.

pappyodaniel

I don't watch live tv anymore apart from live sports. Half time ad-breaks of matches seems to be about 50% adverts for online betting companies.

There should be a blanket ban on these ads as they are targeting a younger audience...and God help you if youre a recovering gambling addict having to sit through it.

Yeah Right

Worked with a guy whose previous job was in a PP bookies.

He was verbally and physically abused by one of the local regulars one morning because he was in Temple St hospital with one of the kids all night, which meant he was late opening the shutters on the bookies that morning by about 10 minutes.

Your man was up in his face, screaming and shouting, pushing, all full of piss and vinegar, all because he'd missed a race that he'd been given a tip for. After opening up, the punter demanded that he look up the results and, if his horse won, he was getting on to PP HQ to demand payment.

My mate asked him "yeah, sure, where was the meeting?……….what race was it?"

The punter said "9:05am race at Portman Park"

"Portman Park?"

"Yeah!"

"You got a tip for a virtual horse race, not even one with real horses?"

"yeah…..did he win or not?"

"No, came 4th by a mile"

"………."

He spent the rest of the day typing up his notice and applying for jobs when he was free.

ancapailldorcha

Ah.. Portman Park. There's a memory I wish I didn't have. There was also Steepledowns and Sprint Valley.

Anyway, for those who just couldn't wait until the afternoon to part with their cash and for the bookies who could wait that long either, they invented virtual horse racing which is exactly what it sounds like.

paul71

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122887003#Comment_122887003

It should go the way of cigarette advertising and hopefully will. With a ban on Branding to. No horses in the windows, plain packing (Brown façade for all shops), no TVs permitted in the shops, nothing for this parasitic scourge of an industry to advertise itself.

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122887280#Comment_122887280

Well if anything they got more comfortable inside.

They were dank places away back when I used to do a footy bet every Saturday for a couple of quid.

Then I heard they started to add plush sofa, coffee and tea making, vending machines etc.

There's also local gambling places, not bookies, where they will actually go out and get patrons food so they don't leave.

fatbhoy

..

paul71

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122887329#Comment_122887329

I know they did. I had not set foot in one for 30 years until 3 months ago, it was plush and yet somehow I still felt dirty just by being inside.

paulpd

I know a bookie who was telling me that there's one Chinese punter that goes to his shop. Spends about E200k pa in the shop and gets about E100k back.

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122883097#Comment_122883097

I go in and do my five euro accum every week on five or six teams on one of the machines in there as find it enjoyable as love the premier league and football in general but some of the stuff you see in there is crazy.

The bookies love you with that accumulator.

Just make 5 single bets and you will not loose as much in the long run.

If you ask me it's more fun to win one out of five bets than not win anything because one leg of an accumulator "loses" and the other 4 "win".

silliussoddius

I might have only went into a bookie once or twice, but the worse gambling related thing I saw was in a local pub. One of the local alky types spent ages pestering the bookie, who was also having a drink there, to place a bet and he’d pay him back later. After the horse lost, he spent ages pestering to walk back the bet.