Quick Q & A with bookie Richard

Richard has been working as a bookie in Hackney for the last ten years, and has been selected as our cash handler of the month, please read our interview with him below.

1. How would you describe your job in a nutshell?
I’m a business manager at a well-known bookies. I look after the day to day running tasks, placing customers’ bets, receiving their cash and paying out their winnings when they are lucky!

2. What would you say are the best parts of your job?
It’s great when there are high levels of business. The more customers, the better! It’s always good when customers place or win interesting and high value bets.

3. What do you consider the ‘low points’ to be?
You have to take into account the ‘idiot factor’ with some of the customers, but there aren’t any real lows, although gambling addictions can sometimes be troubling.

4. Have you experienced any really funny or interesting cash-related incidents?
Surprisingly enough, the reactions that people expect to see in a bookies shop when people win bets are actually pretty rare. You sometimes get one or two people jumping up and down with excitement when the horse they are backing has won a big race, but it’s not as common as people imagine. Most reactions are pretty subdued. It can be interesting when people place really big bets and you definitely notice the difference between how men and women make their decisions. Men tend to look at form more, and women go with more emotional attachments – it might sound clichéd, but it’s true!

5. How do you imagine your work could change if everyone paid using cards?
The most noticeable impact would probably be to the games machines which take coins, they’d have to go. I’ve been working as a bookmaker for the last ten years, and over that time I’ve noticed the shift from people using cheques to place bets, to using cards more and more. I’ve not seen anyone make a bet with a cheque for the last three years. I suppose the only change would be to the smaller value bets, which people usually make using cash. Maybe there would be less of these types of bets made.

6. Can you group different types of people by the bets they make and do you think that this can tell you more about them?
You can definitely group people by the types of bets they make, and yes it’s quite telling. Like I said, it’s interesting to see the difference between the bets men and women put on, especially on horse races. Then you get the customers who come and make the same type of bet on a regular basis, who use the same amount of cash each time. There are others who I suppose could be described as ‘the thinkers’ who look carefully at form and things like that before placing a bet. Then you get some really confident betters who make large value bets and know exactly what they put their money on. Then, of course, you get quite a few ‘mug punters’ who will bet on anything!

7. If you could give any pearls of guided wisdom for future customers that would make life easier for you both, what would they be?
Three things: First, only spend what you can afford to spend. Second, know what you want to put your money on before you come in, and finally, do your research!

8. If you had a choice to work with cash or credit cards which would you chose?
I would chose cash, because it is certain, real money. We only accept debit cards anyway to avoid problems with people maxing out their credit cards and spending money they can’t pay back. Also, if only cash was used, it might help to keep some of the crime out of gambling, avoiding issues like stolen and cloned cards being used.

 

Thursday, 24th March 2011

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