Urban myths

[Mentholdan]

My niece has worked for Ladbroke, "now Coral" for 9 years, so I did a little Q & A with her for the forum. 

Q. Have you ever been told to withhold winnings from Fobts, ie. telling the customer there's not enough money in the shop? 

A. No never, the shop closes at 10pm, long after the banks close. If I get to my shop in the morning to find say 6k in the safe I HAVE TO BANK 4.5K we are only allowed to keep 1.5k in the shop. 

Q. Have you ever been told to tell customers to not film themselves playing the fobts? 

A. No, never. I don't care who films. 

Q. What's the most money you've ever paid out in winnings and what for? 

A. It was 7.2k on a £1 stake footy bet. 

Q. What's the biggest tip you've ever been given? 

A. It was £260 from the guy that won the £7260 on the footy bet. 

Q. How often do you get abuse working in the bookies.? 

A. Almost every day, mostly swearing but being spat at sometimes, verbal threats, banging on the screen at the counter, that sort of stuff. 

Q. Does that bother you? 

A. No, I couldn't give a fuck. 

Q. What irritates you the most? 

A. People who "doctor" betting slips and try to cash them and then get abusive or violent when they get found out. 

Q. Does that happen a lot? 

A. Yeah we get quite a bit of that. 

 Q. Have you ever been robbed while working. 

A. Yes once, I just handed over the money, it's not my money so not worth getting hurt over. The police caught the guys on a bus about a couple of hours later. 

Q. Do you like your job? 

A. I love it, most customers are regulars and really nice. 

Q. Do you gamble? 

A. Yes, I have a Paddy Power account and bet £10 a week max on slots. 

Q. What's the most you won. 

A. 2.2k I got 5 scatters once on DOA II. 

[StopandStep]

Brilliant questions, thanks to your niece. Have a great Christmas 🙂

[BlindHaze]

Interesting stuff. I do sometimes feel for people working in bookies, I’ve seen abuse with my own eyes and it’s not nice. It’s not the person behind the counter’s fault you’ve decided to spunk your dole money in 20 minutes on a FOBT. Majority of punters are nice folks but it only takes one dickhead to ruin your day. 

[Senna]

is there a button behind the counter for the fobts that if you press it, gives the customer a win???

[The crisp man]

1 hour ago, Senna said:

is there a button behind the counter for the fobts that if you press it, gives the customer a win???

Haha, I used to hear that so many times when the fobts first came out, as you spend a good bit of time staring at a computer screen to "capture" the normal bets that customers place. The amount of customers who thought we were watching them play the fobts and deciding the results was amazing.

 

[Mentholdan]

Oh gawd, it's Oceans 11.

[cazza6565]

1 hour ago, Senna said:

is there a button behind the counter for the fobts that if you press it, gives the customer a win???

oh jesus if I had a quid for the amount of times I got asked this. Some customers would say oh I am sure you guys get told to make some of us lose.

One Saturday afternoon a guy had put a few hundred into a fobt.

He then said to me about half hour later can I have it back as it was his mortgage money and he hadn't won. I said and where do I get it from

and he actually said can you not empty the machine.

No joke.