Please Gamble Responsibly

Always bet on the dog that takes a shit during the approach to the traps.

Also, if you lose, just double your next bet! That way you'll make up for your previous losses and win extra money on top.

Good nationalities to be if you want to gamble: Irish, Chinese, Albanian, Jamaican

Bad nationalities: Northern European nations. You just look odd.

When win, go home.

Oh, that's because some moron decided to sue one of the big gambling chains because he lost so much money on gambling.

Apparently, he'd asked them to ban him, and they hadn't, and took his bets anyway. So he tried to sue them for his losses.

I don't know about that. Can you sue a bar for serving you if you're an alcoholic?

However... I do think it's a bit much that in the half mile walk home from the station, there are no less than 5 different bookies. 2 from the same chain, on opposite sides of the street. And they're in the process of building another one where there used to be a clothes shop! What on earth for?

To make money.

there are huge numbers of parallels between betting shops and Argos shops. Particularly if the betting shops are Ladbrokes ones, coz they're red and white!

- Tiny, tiny ballpoint pens

- Plainness of design

- Waiting around

- A sense of disappointment when you leave

etc

Surely there is a limit to the number of gambling... (I want to say Dens, but I'm sure they're not actually called that. Parlours? So Victorian.) um, establishments that one neighbourhood can support!

I mean, there certainly is to pubs.

I don't think it's that hard to make a parallel.

"Gambling responsibly" means, in so many words, if you enjoy gambling as entertainment (or are doing it for whatever reason...escape cough cough), then don't go crazy and blow all your money (leading to bankruptcy, eviction from home, alienation from family, friends).

But, yeah, the earnestness of those signs ring empty (the betting shop: "Hey, don't look at us, we warned them to gamble responsibly!!")

Oh, that's because some moron decided to sue one of the big gambling chains because he lost so much money on gambling.

no, those signs were required to be there by law since like 10 years ago.

Gambling responsibly involves spending money you can afford to lose, and indeed, are happy "spending" for whatever entertainment you get out of it. If you take a methodical approach, you can even develop an idea of your long term return on your investment - if you make back in winnings 50% of what you spend, then actually, your £10 bet is only costing you a fiver. But it IS costing you a fiver, even if you win, so you can't kid yourself that you're a winning gambler unless you're one of the tiny minority with the necessary skills to find the very few bets which have a positive expectation, arbitrage possibilities, inside knowledge etc. etc.

betting shops are going to disappear in about 10 years time anyway, once the old men who don't have internet have all died.

i do mystery shopping there sometimes (bloody great, get paid to go and make a free bet), and on saturday afternoons it's just full of old men but it's quite nice cos they have a banter and it's something for them to do (and 'socialise' i suppose).

Can you sue a bar for serving you if you're an alcoholic?

Probably not if you're an alcoholic. However since it's illegal to serve someone who's drunk, if a bar was to serve someone a drink who was quite obviously wankered ----> alcohol poisoning/drunken mishap ----> illness/injury or death, they would probably be in stong position to sue.

Dunno if it's ever happened though.

I think I gamble responsibly. Stoopid £2 accumulator bet on the football on Saturday making the 2 hours between 3 and 5pm significantly more interesting.

also: re: kate's mail about that dude - this was covered in this thread!
ILX want to make lots of money? best scam ever

I gamble pretty responsibly, doing a few quid on the football at the weekend, and a few quid in quiz machines which I get a fair return out of. I used to play the fruit machines as well, but they've taken away all the ones I was good at from the places I go, and I haven't sussed out how to play the new ones yet, and can't be bothered.

I used to get to go and do mystery shopping in the bookies as well, except part of the assignment was to use the loos in Ladbrokes, bleurgh, urgh, Renton in Trainspotting to thread etc. Still, a free £2 bet every couple of weeks was nice.

yeah. although the loos aren't so bad really the ones down here - but even when it's bad i'd probably just say yeah it's fantastic (rather than inform the staff?? way to give yourself away) - like, who gives a shit (lolol) anyway!

i'm well shit at it though - i think i'm just slightly too young (even though i'm chinese) to look like i'm a normal punter (especially when i then ask them "if i make an each-way bet on first scorers how many places do you pay?"), i love the way their eyes suddenly open and one of them starts tidying up the whole place.

full of old men but it's quite nice cos they have a banter

I was in a bookies last week and an old guy shouted "RUN YA FUCKIN WHORE!" at a horse on the telly then said "sorry love, no offence" to the woman who worked there. I don't know if he was comparing her to a horse or a whore.

He wasn't calling her anything! In old fashioned circles, it's simply unacceptible to swear in front of a woman.

(Coz, you know, us ladies never, ever fucking swear.)

um, gambling is an addiction. However, gambling addicts are the last people who will benefit from a "please gamble responsibly" sign.

clearly the sign should say "I BET YOU CAN'T STOP GAMBLING IRRESPONSIBLY, BET YER A FIVER"

xpost things are different in scotland

It is perfectly feasible to gamble without getting addicted to it though. My mum has a flutter twice a year, once on the Grand National, once on the US Masters. Oh noes! Addict!

Alcoholics will never benefit from "please drink responsibly" on their whisky bottles, and smokers won't give up because it says "smoking can kill" on the side of their fag packets. Nominal attempts at duty of care are by and large pointless. Has anyone *ever* bought a packet of fags that says "smoking is addictive, please don't start" and thought "cheers, I'll not bother then, thanks for that"?

These signs are NOT for the benefit of the addicts! They are to prevent liability in the people selling potentially addictive products. "Look, we warned you. If you get addicted, it's yr own damn fault so don't come crying to us."

He wasn't calling her anything! In old fashioned circles, it's simply unacceptible to swear in front of a woman.

I realise that, it was just his choice to phrase when he could easily have said "Pardon my French" or w/e that I noticed.

(when did "French" become synonymous with swearing. Is French a "bad language"?)

This is going to turn into the Prince Harry thread in a moment where people accuse me of being a French hater for simply pointing out that they were England's traditional enemy for 1500x years!

French = enemies and bad, therefore their language is clearly swearing.

Except the Scots were allied with the French, so I don't see that being a common expression there.

French = enemies and bad, therefore their language is clearly swearing.

That's probably right. Taking leave without permission was often referred to as "French leave" - The French called it "English leave" :)

Though I think it was down to the French being more permissive and risqué than plain old Bad.

Yes, I know they're not, Kate, that's why I described them as being a nominal duty of care as well as questioning their effectiveness.

many xposts

French letter = English sleeve
there are other egs too. Dutch were also an enemy for a while hence Dutch uncle, Dutch courage, Double Dutch etc.

Bad! They're just plain bad! Now get on the Prince Harry thread and help with our petition to send Harry off to invade Calais!

(I'm sure he'll be up for it with all the cheap bouze there.)

http://www.takeourword.com/Issue058.html

This phrase, in which French refers to "bad language", is employed when the speaker feels compelled to use an obscenity despite having listeners who might be offended. It's a late 19th century euphemism which first appeared in Harper's Magazine in 1895.

It is thought that the term French is employed in this sense as it already had a history of association with things considered vulgar. As far back as the early 16th century, French pox and the French disease were synonyms for genital herpes, and French-sick was another term for syphillis. The OED also equates the adjective French with "spiciness", as in French letter for "condom", French kiss (1923) and French (i. e. "sexually explicit") novels (from 1749).

help with our petition to send Harry off to invade Calais!
I'm Scottish, I'm not supposed to have (irrational) hatred of the French.

The Scots and the French never really liked each other! The Auld Alliance was simply a case of "my enemy's enemy is my friend." What did the French ever do for Scotland?

(exception = David Trezeguet) xpost to onimo

i thought this thread said "Please Grumble Responsibly"

What did the French ever do for Scotland?

Ashet pie!

Ok they just gave us the word (from assiette) but still...

It's debate like this on ILE that makes me proud to be British

I forgot to answer the original question. Gambling responsibly means only losing a little drop every week and occasionally winning enough to drink irresponsibly for a night.

That's probably right. Taking leave without permission was often referred to as "French leave" - The French called it "English leave" :)

and english call english mustard french mustard and french mustard english mustard but french call french mustard english mustard and english mustard french mustard

and the french put seeds in the mustard they give to English people coz they want the English people to get the seeds stuck in their teeth. they keep the seedless mustard for themselves and when English people come into French supermarkets they hide it.

please gamble responsively

responsively

"Live betting console" is where my responsible betting regime goes to shit ("Man Utd MUST get the next goal! Oh FUCK! Man Utd must get the NEXT goal! SHIT!")

betfair is amazing. for the sports markets it's more a test of people's reflexes than knowledge of the actual sports