Anybody like to have a little bet.

fishingpaul

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 24, 2007
871
86
I wonder how many people like to have a bet now and again,in the hope of maybe winning a few quid,if you bet trebles and accummalators you will be the bookies friend,if you bet single bets and win even small amounts online,im talking less than £50 all the big bookmakers quickly limit your account to incredibly less than three pound bets,i cannot help wondering if professional gamblers are just an urban myth,put about by the bookmakers themselves,it may be possible today using the exchanges,but it would be impossible to make a regular profit online at the bookmakers,even when pricing the field for a guaranteed profit they only want mug punters,just google any major bookmaker account closures limiting bets,they will love you if you lose,they will quickly restrict you to less than three pound bets or the virtual racing and slots if you win.
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
52,760
30,348
Professional gamblers used to exist in Britain, I knew of one but that was very many years ago. Todays national bookmaking seems too sophisticated for them to operate easily.

It seems to be internationally that the large scale individual wins are possible, as the sport fixing for gambling profit shows.
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jonathan75

Esteemed Pedelecer
Apr 24, 2013
794
213
Hertfordshire
Perhaps the bookies don't need to trip gamblers up - if the great majority of serious gamblers will keep playing until they've lost all their gains. My understanding is that for every professional winner at gambling there are probably tens of thousands of professional losers. That's not an insult, it's a psychotherapeutic term of art deriving from probably centuries of doctors trying to help sufferers of the terrible illness which is gambling addiction, of whom there are apparently lots (many many more than successful professional winners at gambling).
 
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fishingpaul

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 24, 2007
871
86
Perhaps the bookies don't need to trip gamblers up - if the great majority of serious gamblers will keep playing until they've lost all their gains. My understanding is that for every professional winner at gambling there are probably tens of thousands of professional losers. That's not an insult, it's a psychotherapeutic term of art deriving from probably centuries of doctors trying to help sufferers of the terrible illness which is gambling addiction, of whom there are apparently lots (many many more than successful professional winners at gambling).
My point is that the bookies are happy to take the cash, from the great majority of losing gamblers,a few winners will soon see online accounts limited,i do not think that most punters realise, it is impossible to win from online bookies.
 

jonathan75

Esteemed Pedelecer
Apr 24, 2013
794
213
Hertfordshire
My point is that the bookies are happy to take the cash, from the great majority of losing gamblers,a few winners will soon see online accounts limited,i do not think that most punters realise, it is impossible to win from online bookies.
I think you need to make a distinction here between not being allowed to win, and the bookie not being willing to take money for another bet. If you win a bet which is accepted, they have no choice but to honour it. It's a contract, they agreed to it. But nobody is obliged to agree to a new contract, i.e. a new bet.

Anyway my point is it's not possible to win at gambling, full stop. Because people don't do it to win. They do it to lose. After all who needs proof that they can be lucky and do statistics? What purpose does it serve? Nobody needs that, it serves no practical purpose - except in practice to **** up the lives of hundreds of thousands of gambling addicts in the UK. If anyone wants to show themselves their own prowess at statistics they should do an online course in it or a BSc, and stay out of the bookies.
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
52,760
30,348
The way I always expressed it when working at Epsom was:

"The punters go home on the train, the bookies drive their jaguars".
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lectureral

Esteemed Pedelecer
Apr 30, 2007
397
60
Suva, Fiji
If you win a bet which is accepted, they have no choice but to honour it. It's a contract, they agreed to it.
Interestingly, that is true now - but only since 2005 - before that a gambling contract was unenforceable and you had to trust the bookie to "honour" it.
 
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bateman

Finding my (electric) wheels
Mar 28, 2015
16
9
45
Think there's a lot of pro gamblers, mainly on the exchanges. Have known a few who've done it for a while then stopped. One system betting on football, other per hole golf. Both stopped as very time consuming, dull, and could make an easier living working.
 

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