Another Betting Account Closed - No Real Shock

Just the other day I headed down to my local Betfred and was handed the dreaded letter. I didn’t need to open it to know I wasn’t going to be placing any further bets in that shop.

It read:

‘Following an internal business review, a decision has been made that Betfred will no longer accept any bets of any kind from you or any person believed to be acting on your behalf.

The shop staff in this office have had no influence with regard to this decision although they have been instructed to enforce it without question and with immediate effect.

The company’s decision applies to all Betfred shops and steps are now being taken to inform all other relevant shops.

If you attend any of the Company’s shops and are identified, you will be asked to leave; no refund will be made to you in the event of you managing to place a bet or play a machine in any Betfred shop.’

Now I could be absolutely outraged by this treatment but I suspect it won’t do me any good. At least they had the decency to terminate our business relationship cleanly, rather than hiding behind affordability checks – a tactic of some other well-known bookmakers.

The debate rages on about what bookies should and shouldn’t be allowed to do to their customers. From my perspective, I acknowledge that if Fred allowed me to bet on what I liked for whatever stake I wanted, then I’d make a lot of money, so regarding the business model, that can’t be allowed. The more successful the punter, the more likely they are to place larger stakes and disproportionately take money out of the coffers.

In many ways I understand their approach and notification. They’ve made it quite clear they don’t want my business much to my frustration.

Betting markets are very different now to how they were 20 years ago but I pride myself on placing bets where the information I use is available to everybody else if they so choose to use it.

I don’t have insider knowledge but place bets according to what I perceive to be value. Without being an arber, that can involve taking an arb price and, shock, horror, sometimes even taking an arb because both legs represent value. Sometimes I might even have taken an arb because I knew it would lock in a profit. As a punter, why would you not lock in a profit? I’ve often said that bookies are really only glorified arbers and their job is to lock in, yet if a punter did it then this is almost seen as a criminal act.

On the other hand, if I were a bookie and all punters ever tried to do to me was arb me, I’m sure I’d get rid of them pretty darn quick, so I can make some defence of bookies.

Where I see no defence is in the underhand tactics used to block customers. Betfred were at least straight up with me. Others are not so. I have been asked for so many details in affordability checks when it comes to payout time that it cannot be a coincidence. The Gambling Commission states clearly that bookies shouldn’t be asking for this information when it comes to payout time. They need to obtain that information at a prior time i.e. when a customer is trying to place a bet. It’s a ludicrous situation. Imagine placing some bets, winning and then be told ‘we can’t pay you your winnings because we’re not sure you could afford to bet with us in the first place. Now we know you can afford to bet with us because you won but we’re not going to pay you out’.

I’d argue that responsible gambling is a misnomer. Only gamble what you can afford to lose. A friend of mine once asked where’s the risk in that? I understand.

Gamcare tell you not to gamble when you’re unhappy or depressed. Only gamble when you’re happy. In which case, why bother? If you’re happy then you don’t need to gamble ‘cos it may make you unhappy!

It’s hard to square the circle and everybody makes their own choices, sometimes from a position of strength, sometimes not. The simplest argument for a bookie to use is that nobody is making anybody bet, yet I think it’s the one-sided nature of the relationship that causes me consternation because if I’m banned for winning money, then by default the customers they require are purely losing customers and however much they argue it, the more money you lose, the better it is for them.

Having to find value can be hard work, so perhaps they are doing me a favour and I can relax a bit more.

Far worse would be to lose shedloads to the ‘enemy’ and the argument does hold true. Nobody is making us have a bet, so maybe it’s up to us punters to take a step back and be more discerning about our betting. People generally work hard to earn their money, so it’s only right that the bookies should have to work hard for our money too.