Lone Working in betting shops

I used to be a bank manager and some of the largest town centre branches I controlled had lots of small sub branches linked to it.

These sub branches were in hospitals, small villages etc.

Security of the staff was paramount, with stringent entry and exit procedures that were randomly checked by myself and auditors to ensure compliance.

At the very minimum there were two staff, and where there were two, a call back with a code word to the main branch ensured safety.

Entry and exit checks were highly visible from the outside, deterring any robbers.

This is a recipe for disaster especially with those machines and a very easy target for the type of person that will already be attracted to the shop in the first place
 
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Bookmakers need to hire security like nightclubs
 
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I'd not want to work on my own, and I've only worked in shops in Wales, Oxford and Beaconsfield! I was always a cashier and had a manager most if the time and we never had an issue.

I'd hate to do the job these days, when I started we learned settling and did it! It was great fun. When the BHA made me redundant I walked straight into a tote shop to get work and the job had changed so much the only similarity was that there was still some racing on the screens!! Didn't last long before I had to give up work all together.

Once in Beaconsfield area a relief manager did press the alert button when we had a stroppy customer, it was daft as all he needed was gentle calming down! But the police arrived within 4 mins! But a lot can happen in 4 minutes....

Nx
 
From Daily Mail

Betting shop managers are being told their wages are to be directly linked to how much cash punters pour in to a new generation of high stakes gaming machines branded a ‘social cancer’.
A leaked memo reveals that staff at one of Britain’s biggest bookmakers have been told ‘higher weighting’ is to be attached to profits from fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs).
Critics of the machines, which allow users to wager up to £100 a spin every 20 seconds, say they are highly addictive and make casino-style gambling accessible on the high street.

The move by Betfred will fuel growing calls for the Government to curb the terminals. Campaigners want stakes to be cut to a maximum of £2, a reduction in spin rates and a ban on offers of free stakes intended to draw in new punters.Betfred, named after its co-founder Fred Done, has 1,375 betting shops across the country, in locations ranging from inner cities to leafy suburbs and rural towns.

An internal company memo, setting out a proposed ‘restructure announcement’, shows sales managers will attract ‘per hour’ supplements of 25p, 75p or £1.25 depending on how their shop is graded on three performance indicators. As well as traditional over-the-counter slips and stakes, it says they will include ‘FOBT gross profit (which will attract a higher weighting)’.

The Daily Mail has also seen documents suggesting that some Betfred stores intend to trade until 9pm on Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, hours after racing has finished – though the firm insisted last night the vast majority would now close at 6.30pm.

Adrian Parkinson, from the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, said: ‘The proposed restructure is cynically aimed at incentivising shop staff to increase revenue from addictive digital roulette machines in order to increase their hourly wage. It entirely contradicts their commitment to social responsibility.’

Labour MP Tom Watson said: ‘This is an utterly cynical and avaricious measure that is ruining horse racing, destroying bookmaking and creating problem gamblers.’ Conservative MP Stewart Jackson said: ‘There has been significant criticism of the pernicious effect these machines are having. We need to think about the impact not just on problem gamblers but their families.’

A spokesman for Betfred said: ‘Betfred has announced to its staff a proposed restructuring of the company’s shop estate, which we believe will help drive the business forward and give all our employees a defined career path. It is however incorrect to state that the grading of the shops is based purely on gross profit from the fixed odds betting terminals.
‘The grading is based on three factors that reflect the business of a high street betting shop: the number of over-the-counter slips taken, over-the-counter stakes, and gross profit from the fixed odds betting terminals. To do otherwise would be unfair on our staff.’

The Gambling Commission says it is taking time to review FOBTs.
 
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BHA hooked on losing run over gambling machines in betting shops



British Horseracing Authority must end shameful policy towards toxic presence of betting terminals on high streets
Casino-games-including-ro-011.jpg
Casino games, including roulette, on electronic terminals in a high street betting shop. Photograph: Alex Segre/Rex Features

Racing has much to look forward to in 2014, with prize money widely expected to set a record, though whether that will be enough to satisfy the more pig-headed members of the Racehorse Owners' Association remains to be seen.


But there is always room for improvement and, since this is the right time to express one's hopes for the year ahead, here is an earnest wish for 2014. Please could this be the year when the British Horseracing Authority comes to its senses and aligns itself with the right side of the debate over casino machines in betting shops?


The machines which the big chains insist on calling Fixed Odds Betting Terminals – though FOBTs have nothing at all to do with traditional betting – have been a recurring theme in this column for several years. The last Labour government took the idiotic and calamitous decision to allow roulette and other fixed-margin casino games into what had previously been "betting" shops back in 2005, and the poisonous consequences have been spreading through the system since.


FOBTs are toxic. Unlike betting, which has fluid margins, their margin is small but irrevocably fixed. FOBTs require no thought or consideration of chance by either the player or the operator, and while they offer the illusion of control by allowing the players to pick their numbers, the process of taking their money is entirely mechanical.


The maths which underpins a FOBT is unbeatable and will remain so for as long as we live in a universe in which an apple falls down rather than up. Once it is plugged in and switched on, a FOBT stops making money for its owner only when it is standing idle.


This is why so many shops have clustered in Britain's most deprived areas since 2005. The operators are simply going where the bodies are and the most deprived neighbourhoods tend to have the highest population density too. As a result, local economies which were already depressed have been further suffocated thanks to the mechanical extraction of money via FOBTs.
Racing's interests have been affected too. Clearly the machines offer fierce competition for the punter's pound but the toxin also has more insidious effects. Pre-FOBTs the high street bookie was an accepted part of the urban landscape. From legalisation in the early 1960s onwards the relationship between British society and its betting industry had developed from one of reluctant toleration to mature acceptance. Now that relationship, too, is being poisoned.


And poisoned, shamefully, with the encouragement of the BHA. "Betting shops are pivotal to the funding of British racing," Will Lambe, the authority's director of public affairs and policy, said last year, "and as such we do not support any measure [to restrict FOBTs] that could compromise their financial viability."


Elsewhere, however, the tide is turning. Opposition to the destructive effects of casinos on the high street is a rare example of a cause which unites both the Guardian and the Daily Mail, and Ed Miliband has already promised to give councils the power to restrict FOBTs if Labour wins the 2015 election, an outcome which is currently top-priced at 8-13.


If the next government has the sense to address that disastrous decision back in 2005, either by banning FOBTs or severely restricting stakes, the big bookmakers would have little option but to start being bookmakers again. Among all sports, football included, racing is the most natural betting medium there is, and would be ideally placed to take advantage.
At present the BHA is part of the FOBT problem. With a little more foresight it could decide instead to be part of the solution
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These machines have been complained about now for so long but the fact they are such a good earner for the bookies they are finding it very hard to stop the influx of these machines. In my local area that past 5 years I have seen 3 new betting shops appear in a 2 mile radius and I bet the primary decision for them opening was for these gold mines which are FOBT,s:mad:.

Many a time I have in the past had a good win in the bookies and think to myself I will just have a quick 10 on roulette and half an hour later my winnings from the horses have been devoured:rolleyes:. They can be really addictive espcially when the staff told everyone at the start that it is a random number generator thatcomes down a telephone line, which gives the winning number but after a while I realised they are an absolute fix. I can remember I used to cluster chips around 8 and 11 and that many times 30 (which is inbetween them both) came in was staggering and I came to the realization that it is programmed this way to make you think you are getting close to a win and therefore get you at it and get you chasing which to especially the young and foolhardy it works a treat.

They are such a waste a time I have seen many put in a couple of thousand and they end up collecting maybe £3,000 and they are over the moon with their 1/2 shot which is abysmal odds when you are risking 2k to start with. I have never seen anyone say put a thousand in and get up to 10k ever, so basically your odds of getting a value win for your money are dire.

The bad thing is the staff are given incentives to get people hooked they get paid a bonus if the shop makes so much profit a month and this drives them to have no compassion and to be predatory for the foolish souls who ruin themselves with these blighters. They have these free competitions continually advertised in their windows which draws in more people to get hooked. You can see the greed on the managers face alot of the time when a high stakes player enters the shop, their fake charm and free coffees etcetra butter the victim up for another rollercoaster ride of negatrive emotions when he does he his hard earned dough again. I realise the staff have no sympathy whatsoever with the gamblers, you hear them saying they got what they deserve, they are basicaaly trained to be totally against the punter and just see him as a £ sign and nothing else, it is quite sad to watch how sadistic the staff can become.
 
You say that, handsofstone, but when I was working behind a bookmaker's counter and the FOBTs were first introduced we were asked to watch out for people who we thought had an addictive approach. I remember one customer sent a letter to head office asking to be stopped from playing the damned things.

Things seemed to have changed and I can confirm that with one of the firms a managers pay is related to the amount of profit made from the damned maachines.
 
Colin Phillips said:
You say that, handsofstone, but when I was working behind a bookmaker's counter and the FOBTs were first introduced we were asked to watch out for people who we thought had an addictive approach. I remember one customer sent a letter to head office asking to be stopped from playing the damned things.

Things seemed to have changed and I can confirm that with one of the firms a managers pay is related to the amount of profit made from the damned maachines.
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Yes you are right in some cases I have seen them have close conversations with some people who are being ripped apart by them and trying to talk sense to them and in fairness they know 90% of the time their advice is not going to be heeded so they probably think why bother. I think the staff should be able to bar problem gamblers ( I know they have the cover with self exclusion) but by barring them from the shop may send a louder message to to wake up the person that he has a big problem.

A wise man once told me if you add up all the roulette numbers it equals 666, he said that should all you need as an incentive to stay away from roulette:lol:
 
No machines = no betting shops in the UK. How will people get a bet on? Be careful what you wish for.
 
SlimChance said:
No machines = no betting shops in the UK.
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You mean that if the 2005 Act was rescinded, then, every betting office in the UK would shut down? :blink:

I would love to see your reasoning behind this prediction. And to see your explanation as to how betting offices survived pre-FOBT, and how you square your assumption with the Irish scenario where FOBT's are still not allowed in shops - yet we haven't seen the extinction of the betting office as a result.
 
icebreaker said:
You mean that if the 2005 Act was rescinded, then, every betting office in the UK would shut down? :blink:

I would love to see your reasoning behind this prediction. And to see your explanation as to how betting offices survived pre-FOBT, and how you square your assumption with the Irish scenario where FOBT's are still not allowed in shops - yet we haven't seen the extinction of the betting office as a result.
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Retail betting is dying not growing and if you walk into a shop in Ireland you wil be bombarded with specials (good value ones too) crying out for turnover.
The Irish scene is dead and only the big chain Powers/Boyles/Ladbrokes and Ladbrokes have survived. Ladbrokes could be taken over in the next twelve months btw. The shops make no money in comparison to non-retail.
I think FOBTs and all casino gambling is wrong but I want to get on and only care about myself. The shops are a god send for restricted punters. If the machines are banned then over 50% of the shops in the UK will close.

A point that is lost on all the get rid of FOBTs morale high ground kickers is that the degenerates that **** away money in these machines will find done other way to **** away their cash if there are no FOBT. Don't blame the player, blame the game.


.
 
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That's all very well and fine, but it's a long way from saying that "no FOBT's = no betting offices."
Was only seeking clarification of that bald statement, which in fairness I see you are now rowing back on.
 
icebreaker said:
That's all very well and fine, but it's a long way from saying that "no FOBT's = no betting offices."
Was only seeking clarification of that bald statement, which in fairness I see you are now rowing back on.
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But it will be the end of the betting office. Betting offices are like bars in Ireland that opened at 10am in the early years of this millenium, their clientele are literally dying. Young lads go into betting shops to do a Football coupon or to deposit money into their onlibe account. There are no up and coming shops punters nor are there many lads going to be drinking a pint and a drop at 10am on a Tuesday morning as was the case in he 60's. 70's, 80's and 90's.

The game is changing. Evolve or die.
 
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Good little discussion. Reflects well on the contributors.

Let me help change that. :D

This is in part a candidate for a Lounge thread; as the subject-matter is inextricably linked with social aspects.

Dealing with those first, I'm in the "they'll **** it away on something else" camp. People stoking FOBTs on a regular basis are generally addictive personalities, and spunking their money on FOBT's is - in a way - better than them spunking it on, say, Heroin, a membership at Ripon, or something else even more damaging.

Nobody begrudges the underclass their full-bloodied Sky packages, or their i-phones; principally (imho) because those higher in the pecking order appreciate they could doubtless do with some light-relief from their dreary lives.

Just because you're skint, shouldn't preclude from being allowed some lark-about cash (again, imho) and if your chosen fix is the illusion of beating-the-system/free-money, then that's fine by me.

In my view, they're on the same branch of the tree as your average punter, in terms of their 'addiction'. They're just often potless - but I don't view that as a reason to get all preachy about what they spend their pittance on. What next? Stop them smoking and getting tatts? Why, that would be verging on fascism. :ninja:

These people don't need saved.

Moving onto the BHA, I think Charlie Brooker summed it up best: "Wanking for pennies".
 
Grasshopper said:
Good little discussion. Reflects well on the contributors.

Let me help change that. :D

This is in part a candidate for a Lounge thread; as the subject-matter is inextricably linked with social aspects.

Dealing with those first, I'm in the "they'll **** it away on something else" camp. People stoking FOBTs on a regular basis are generally addictive personalities, and spunking their money on FOBT's is - in a way - better than them spunking it on, say, Heroin, a membership at Ripon, or something else even more damaging.

Nobody begrudges the underclass their full-bloodied Sky packages, or their i-phones; principally (imho) because those higher in the pecking order appreciate they could doubtless do with some light-relief from their dreary lives.

Just because you're skint, shouldn't preclude from being allowed some lark-about cash (again, imho) and if your chosen fix is the illusion of beating-the-system/free-money, then that's fine by me.

In my view, they're on the same branch of the tree as your average punter, in terms of their 'addiction'. They're just often potless - but I don't view that as a reason to get all preachy about what they spend their pittance on. What next? Stop them smoking and getting tatts? Why, that would be verging on fascism. :ninja:

These people don't need saved.

Moving onto the BHA, I think Charlie Brooker summed it up best: "Wanking for pennies".
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I agree with that. I have a conscious, I hate seeing people lose money they can't afford to lose but the reality is these lads ain't going to give the money to charity instead.

.
 
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