Anyone else work in a Betting Shop?

Cool_Username

I work in a Coral betting shop in South Wales as a deputy manager - just wondering how many other people on the board work in a betting shop and what they think of their job - just a light-hearted thread for fellow bookmakers or perhaps people considering taking a job in the glamorous (cough cough) world of licenced betting!

elsietanner71

Hi. I was an assistant (read: covered night racing when noone else would) manager in a bookies for a few years. I quite liked managing because you've noone breathing down your neck but some of the punters were horrible!

Then I was managing when the office was robbed by some knob in a balaclava (who knifed me because I couldn't open the safe) so I left. That's what happens when you take the protective screens down to be more 'customer friendly'! Do they still have the screens in Corals?

Cool_Username

God sorry to hear what happened to you! No shops in my area have bandit screens any more - a couple in Cardiff did until a few years but I think they were all taken out.

elsietanner71

I can laugh now - the prat had a woolly hat with homemade eye slits in so obviously couldn't afford Army and navy store prices!

Do punters still steal prices? That used to drive me mad!

wontfallforit

elsietanner71 wrote: »

Do punters still steal prices?

Sorry to butt in, but what on earth does that mean?!

elsietanner71

Sorry! Speaking in tongues!

The prices (the odds) change all the time and are displayed on screens. So when a punter hands you a slip they say, 'I'll take Dobbin at 5/1' . In the case of price pinchers, you usually check and Dobbin is now 3/1, they're just trying it on.

When you explain it's 3/1 they are usually mortally offended and inform you that it's your fault because you weren't quick enough checking, and stand their literally 'shouting the odds'. Grrrr! I was young and quite shy and the seasoned cheaters would literally bully me into giving the better odds (which is technically fraud and you can lose your job for it)

Cool_Username

elsietanner71 wrote: »

I can laugh now - the prat had a woolly hat with homemade eye slits in so obviously couldn't afford Army and navy store prices!

Do punters still steal prices? That used to drive me mad!

God yes you're never gonna stop anyone doing that!

dave4545454

i always wondered this. are there actually people who do make a good living from placing bets in betting shops? you always hear it down the pub about so and so making x grand a year betting but i thought the bookies always win?

and if so, are the people who work there not tempted to place the same bets as them?