'Consultation over the Gambling Introductory Offer Loopholes board' blog discussion

JimmyTheWig

MT90 wrote: »

Plenty of other sites outhere or that would open up if closed here.

Then don't talk of closing this board as being a benefit, as people will still be able to do it. Maybe not within the safety of the MSE forums and its principled posters / officials, but they'd still do it just maybe with more risk.

Jimmythewig, are you serious? MBing is secretly destroying the Gambling industry for the good of society by publicly and loudly broadcasting a 'win-win system'?

No, I don't think it is a secret. I think it is quite clear that GIOL has a hand in reducing the number and quality of offers available.
That's why many people want it shut down.
A welcome side-effect of this is that, surely, this will attract less people to gambling.
The bookies make these offers to attract customers to then make lots of money (that they often can't afford) from. Less offers = less punters. A worthy aim of a Money Saving Expert.

mrmajika

There's been a lot of well thought out and balance view points posted in this thread already and I echo much of what has been said.

My plea is a simple and selfish one, direct to Martin:

Please don't close down this board. I have made a lot of money from the information contained within it and I continue to benefit from its content. Should the board be closed then I will undoubtedly be financially worse off.

drrat

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

A welcome side-effect of this is that, surely, this will attract less people to gambling.
The bookies make these offers to attract customers to then make lots of money (that they often can't afford) from. Less offers = less punters. A worthy aim of a Money Saving Expert.

my god are you serious?

This board has encouraged thousands to open accounts at bookmakers and wander into bookmakers that other wise would never have done so.
Many will act responsibly and follow the guides on this board, others will push beyond the Risk Free mantra of this board into more risky methods, some of those will take this further and trade and ultimatley gamble.
I read a post not long back of a guy who got sucked into matched betting and played the risk free Casino offers. Enjoyed the thrill of a win, played some more, chased his losses, until he ran out cash and credit on his cards. It was a sad read, but a reminder that gambling can be addictive and destructive.

This board may not encourage gambling but what it does do is invite people into the world of gambling.

Oh and on the point of offers, there are many dozens of offers that come and go every week. Yes, these offers have changed, the way they have changed is to move away to some degree from offering bonuses that attract the more serious gamblers, to offers that encourage the more casual gamber to part with their cash.

IMO there are as many offers as there have ever been, perhaps more, but the makeup of them has changed to such a degree, that MBer's will simply overlook many of them as profit is difficult to lock in.

super_reds

purt wrote: »

Sure, there have been times where people have been embroiled in a bookmaker that has gone bust and likewise have attempted to make money from exploiting supposed offers that have gone horribly wrong (Betfair casino, first goalscorer etc). Nonetheless, the warnings are there. With the best will in the world though, no amount of discussion about the pitfalls, or warnings, can ever stop someone from bringing damage upon themselves by failing to take on board positive advice. Closing the board, in my view, isn't an adequate remedy to that.

Purt, great detailed post, part of which quoted here.

The problem is that the lines have been blurred between acceptable and unacceptable of adhering to the MSE rules.

People only have to read the PRS thread to see how things can go badly wrong. When senior posters like yourself are saying everything is ok then people are going to give that view some credibility. Sure everybody needs to make their own choices but unfortunately there are some people who haven't got the time or the inclination to make those choices and end up in situations that are far riskier than they possibly envisaged.

Individuals stand to lose thousands of pounds from the PRS debacle, so I can't see how this forum can seriously continue under the MSE banner.

Osakan

In comparison to other boards on MSE, and I would guess in common with the majority of GIOL readers, over 90% of the money that I have saved/made thanks to MSE is from the information, methods and assistance available here. I would love for the board to continue so that others can benefit from this particular brand of consumer revenge.

Reading Martin's blog post, it seems to me that the real issue is that MSE does not have the knowledge or capability to police the board as it stands at the moment. JobbingMusician does a fantastic job as board guide, but it appears that more assistance would be needed if the board is to safely continue.

Initially I had thought that the members would be able to self-police the board using the existing spam mechanisms, however since this is a public forum I think it would be liable to abuse by selfish people who wish to hide the more profitable offers.

What I would suggest would be to encourage more controlled participation by the more experienced posters, and to give those users greater powers to lock threads and nip risky offers in the bud. If there was a cadre of 15-20 trusted, experienced members who could work together to protect the newbies and the inexperienced, I would hope that we could provide sufficient protection to satisfy MSE's needs. All it would take is for those users to have the power to lock threads, and the remit to ensure that only offers with 'no risk'* are allowed ...

*no risk in the MB sense, or agree an acceptable level of risk, e.g. GBP only, company trading for x years with history of paying out in timely fashion, all outcomes for the offer reasonably managed, no obvious mismatches in rules for voiding etc of the back/lay ...

Derivative

Thought I would chuck another post in here:

This discussion itself has got me looking at the GIOL board. After reading through the guides and doing a bit of maths myself (I wrote my own spreadsheet, preferable to know what's going on).

Over the weekend I made £100 risk free. Lined up for this week is another £100. I also have referral bonuses coming in.

To put that into context, we're talking roughly a month's food budget made by playing the bookies against each other. In a few hours. The equivalent of almost 20 hours at minimum wage.

So I'd like to thank Martin for having the board in the first place, and the friendly folk on there (especially jobbingmusician).

Former_MSE_Forum_Manager

Hi Folks,

Martin has now posted his blog, >> Gambling Board Consultation results <<