16 Dec 2014
Dear Chaps
As a UKIP member, having passed the PPC assessment and currently looking for a suitable seat, I am pleased that the party is focussing on the plight of the working class, especially the effect on their wages from EU migration. I have written an article about this that was published earlier in the year.
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/05/20/mass-migration-is-a-tax-on-working-classes
Another problem that particularly affects the working class is the growing number of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) in betting shops. I have worked in the bookmaking industry for nearly twenty years, and in that time there have been a lot of changes. The existence of the betting exchanges, namely Betfair, has meant that the bookie vs punter battle is all but over. Bookmakers are unable to compete with the margins that the exchanges bet to, but what they lose in custom they make up for in wages. As the exchanges are the ultimate guide to the betting market, they no longer have to employ as many odds compilers, they just copy the exchange and add a bit of margin. If the bookmaker is out of line with the exchanges, and punters try to take the bookie price, the bookie stops them betting, or limits them to pennies. To all intents and purposes the high St bookie should be dead. They don't take many bets, and they don't let people bet much.
But they are kept afloat by the FOBTs. These are basically Fruit Machines on crack cocaine. There is no edge for the punter as the machines are programmed to win a certain percentage. It is not about skill, they cannot be beaten. Bookmakers now have as many of these machines as possible in betting shops, and staff I have spoken to have told me they are instructed to teach punters how to play them, and stay open as long as possible even when there is barely any sport to bet on. Labour MP Tom Watson has done a great deal of work on the problems of FOBTs. They are a social menace, causing misery to many who cant afford to lose the money they are, and the anger on the part of the player when they lose is often also distressing for the employee, who is usually working alone late at night. The bookmakers that are applying to open shops in High Streets in poor areas (Newham is a particular example) are only doing so in order to pile these machines into them.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/tom-watson-mp/tom-watson-gambling-machines_b_4108634.html
Watson wants some kind of ban on them, Cameron is dithering.
My idea would be to make bookmakers who want FOBTs in their shops re apply for a license as an amusement arcade rather than a bookmaker, and remove their ability to take bets on sport in that shop if such a licence is granted. I predict that Bookmakers such as Ladbrokes, Coral and William Hill would balk at this, but at the moment they are no more than fences for FOBTs anyway. They wont take bets off people who have any clue about betting, but are happy to let the poorest in society lose their wages in a machine which it is impossible to beat. Strange as it may sound, the name Ladbrokes/Hills/Corals adds a cloak of respectability to the mugging that takes place inside their shops. Attaching their name to an amusement arcade would (a) discourage them from applying as it would damage their brand, and (b) give the authorities the chance to deny permission for the arcade. Either would be a bonus for the man in the street.
Because they cannot be beaten, the bookies let anybody have anything they like in these machines
rethink gambling @rethinkgambling Dec 15.
@Coral You took this from a known#gambling#addict on Friday. Anything to say to his children this Christmas? pic.twitter.com/5JIfztXZrL
I have written a couple of articles on this deception here
http://aboutasfarasdelgados.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/luis-louis-ladbrokes-life.html
and here
http://aboutasfarasdelgados.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/you-dont-have-to-be-hypocritical-coward.html
and here is a blog from a betting shop worker who knows the truth behind the supposed advice to "Bet responsibly"
https://contributoria.com/issue/2014-12/544128ff96bd93a404000051
To encourage the existence of a traditional bookmakers, I would offer an tax incentive for those who bet to a low margin and accept large bets in FOBT-less shops. At the moment they bet to very big margins and refuse to take many bets. The betting market in the far east is thriving by accepting enormous bets at low margin, and that is something I feel we could tap into. I have many contacts in the bookmaking game, both poacher and gamekeeper so to speak, and could help pack out a detailed policy if you decide to follow it up.
If we press this policy I feel it will be both a vote winner and enhance UKIPs reputation as the party that has the interests of the working class at heart
Please let me know your thoughts
Hope to see you at the Christmas drink this Thursday
