Today is the one day in the year when it seems everyone has a bet. Yes, it is Grand National Day and over £100 million will be bet on this one race.
Using those well-known scientific methods of selecting winners – the name of the horse, the colours it will wear, how good looking the jockey is and how accurate the punter is with their pin sticking – will determine if the 10p each way will return a profit.
The Grand National is one of those rare days when the social gambler comes out to have a punt. To them it is entertainment, and, overall, they can afford the money they gamble, and they may even get a win every now and then.
There are also professional gamblers, the ones who treat betting as a science where they have the knowledge, time, and money, to take on the bookies.
Finally, there are the problem gamblers, where their betting is out of control and where they continually ignore the negative consequences of their addiction.
The cat has nothing against horse racing. If my equine friends are happy to be ridden for four-plus miles over 30 fences in a suburb of Liverpool, then providing everything is done to keep them safe, then why not? Mind you, you wouldn’t get a cat doing it!
My objection is with the bookmakers and how they ignore and sometimes even encourage the gambling addict.
Okay, there are the ‘corner shop’ bookies, local lads and lasses who make a small living from servicing bets from the locals, and it can be seen as a service as they know their clients. While a small number of these clients may wager the weekly shopping money or the rent, most will bet responsibly.
But when it comes to the big players in the betting industry, there is no such qualms as to how much money they take off their customers and how much misery they leave behind.
Betting is a multi-billion-pound industry which does contribute to the national purse and support some sports. Horse racing is an expensive business and without owners with very deep pockets and the betting levy, probably wouldn’t exist beyond the local point-to-point.
But that said, it is a fact that while the majority enjoy a flutter and can afford to lose, there is a significant minority that are addicted and their addiction effects not only themselves but their innocent families.
This illness – yes, it is an illness described and well understood by the NHS – means the addict cannot control the impulse to bet, the impulse to chase losses with even greater losses, even when the odds are against them.
And the odds are almost always against them. Ask yourself the question, why do the bookies always win? Simple, the odds are stacked in their favour.
In the casino, the house has an ‘edge’ that means that they will, on average, make anything from five per cent upwards of the monies staked.
The bookie does the same because they set the game so that they will always win.
Take betting on football. Let’s take last Monday’s match, Leeds v Liverpool. Paddy Power had the following odds: home win 16/5, draw 3/1 and away win 3/4.
If we translate that into percentage probabilities, this is 23.8 per cent/25 per cent /57.1 per cent. Add all those and you get a percentage probability of 105.9 per cent. If the punter and bookmaker were equal, that number would be 100 per cent but it is 5.9 per cent in favour of the bookie. In effect, they are GUARANTEED to make a 5.9 per cent profit from the match and, of course, if there is a trend towards one option, then they simply change the odds to keep their advantage.
Same if you go to Las Vegas and play roulette. The wheels in Nevada are ‘double zero’ wheels as they have 36 numbers but also a zero and a double zero which you can’t bet on. So, the casino builds in a guaranteed 5.25 per cent profit which is why they can afford to let high rollers stay free at their hotels and consume free food and drink. Remember, they are not a charity.
So, we know that the bookie wins but should/could there more that can be done to tackle gambling addiction?
As most betting these days is online, and, by extension, more anonymous, the problem gambler can be hidden from everyone EXCEPT the bookies they are losing hand over fist to. Their partner, family and friends may not know, although they may notice some of the many signs – secretive behaviour, accumulation of debt and using gambling as an escape from life’s challenges.
But the bookie knows how much they gamble and one of the suggestions is that punters have to be assessed as to their ability to spend, known as an affordability check.
This would require the bookmaker to, first of all, check the identity of the gambler in the same way you have to prove your identity in order to open a bank account. It then requires the bookmaker to require evidence that the gambler can afford to gamble the sums they want to wager and to recognise changes in betting patterns which may be a sign of addiction.
The bookmakers do not want to do this. They want to continue, blithely making money regardless of the damage gambling causes to that significant minority and their families.
The Government would like to legislate to make bookmakers more accountable but their efforts are undermined by a very powerful lobby on behalf of the industry.
Only last week, one MP, Scott Benton, was caught out by a Times newspaper sting, offering to act for the betting investors in return for money. Interestingly, he is MP for Blackpool South, one of the areas of the country with the most challenging social conditions typified by gambling (and drug addiction).
Just look at how many MPs take money from the betting and gaming lobby, and it is the same names that keep cropping up.
For example, why did one of our Cumbrian MPs accept a ticket and hospitality for an Ed Sheeran concert from the Betting and Gaming Council? Or tickets and hospitality to Ascot races on the very same day Mr Benton also graced the Ascot enclosures? Or a ticket to an England football match with hospitality (total of £3,457) paid for by a gambling firm based in Gibraltar, with the very same Mr Benton getting the same.
No one is suggesting that the largesse from the gaming industry showered on MPs in any way affects their judgement or actions, but it does beg the question why, when in receipt of an £86,000 salary, generous expenses and pension, do MPs accept such donations, particularly from organisations and companies who have a clear aim to impact legislation.
Perhaps our Cumbrian MP will explain any link between his receipt of the tickets and his advocacy with and on behalf of the Betting and Gaming Council as so eloquently put in a piece they wrote in The House website last November?
No one is suggesting that social gamblers and those who can afford to lose, as lose they will on 99 out of 100 occasions, should be prevented from spending their money as they wish, but the batting and gaming industries must be required to do more to minimise the harm from problem gambling and we expect our representatives to side more with protecting the vulnerable than taking going to see Ed Sheeran.
About Cumbria Cat
Born in Cumberland and, now, back living in Cumberland, having spent most of the past 50 years in some place called Cumbria, this cat has used up all nine lives as well as a few others.
Always happy to curl up on a friendly lap, the preference is for a local lap and not a lap that wants to descend on the county to change it into something it isn’t. After all, you might think Cumbria/Cumberland/Westmorland is a land forged by nature – the glaciers, the rivers, breaking down the volcanic rocks or the sedimentary layers – but, in reality, the Cumbria we know today was forged by generations of local people, farmers, miners, quarriers, and foresters.
This cat is a local moggy, not a Burmese, Ocicat or Persian, and although I have been around the block a few times, whenever I jump, I end up on my feet back in my home county. I am passionate about the area, its people, past, present and future, and those who come to admire what we hold dear, be it lakes and mountains, wild sea shores, vibrant communities or the history as rich and diverse as anywhere in the world.
