Betting and the Coronvirus?

[insider]

Have you saved money by not being able to bet during the covid 19 pandemic?
I've saved a fortune and realise how much money I waste.
Any thoughts?

[J R Hartley]

92 days without a bet today.

8 more to the magic 100 milestone

[The Lone Gunman]

See the other thread. I was actually having a good season before the lockdown.

Apart from not being able to go to gigs or the football, my biggest saving has come from HMV and Waterstones being shut. I usually spend a small fortune in those places. Difficult to work out how they are going to operate when they're eventually allowed to open again considering a large percentage of their sales must come from compulsive browsers like me.

[insider]

See the other thread. I was actually having a good season before the lockdown.

Apart from not being able to go to gigs or the football, my biggest saving has come from HMV and Waterstones being shut. I usually spend a small fortune in those places. Difficult to work out how they are going to operate when they're eventually allowed to open again considering a large percentage of their sales must come from compulsive browsers like me.

I don't think you're a mug punter like me Dave.
You seem to put a lot of studying of form in.
I don't bet on football I bet on the stuff that if you bet long enough you are bound to lose on.
I've given up in the past for 7 years but have somehow gone back.
Maybe this could be another start to a large break from it.

[The Lone Gunman]

I don't think you're a mug punter like me Dave.
You seem to put a lot of studying of form in.
I don't bet on football I bet on the stuff that if you bet long enough you are bound to lose on.
I've given up in the past for 7 years but have somehow gone back.
Maybe this could be another start to a large break from it.

It can be a dangerous and expensive pastime if you get carried away, which has happened to me in the past.

I've gone through various gambling phases during my life. When I started visiting bookies (aged about 17 or 18), I'd bet on anything that moved and that was the case for more than a decade. I was hopeless and lost loads of money during that phase. Then I woke up and decided I either had to start taking it a lot more seriously or give it up.

I used to bet on the horses and devised my own kind of system based on the Racing Post form and speed ratings. I stuck to that religiously for around six or seven years and was very disciplined with it, starting each season with a betting bank of £250 and betting regularly but carefully. I won decent sums of money for five seasons on the trot and placed some big bets by my standard during that time. The most I ever put on one horse was £800 (Tumbleweed Pearl, it won a maiden at Bath easily at 6/4, so a £2,000 cash return on the day) and the most I ever lost in one bet was £500 (the horse was called Charnwood Forest and the one that beat it by a nose was called First Island - I'll never forget that). I shudder to think of placing bets like those now.

Then I had a disastrous season in 2000 or 2001 - my betting bank disappeared fairly quickly, as did the replacement sum when I tried to double up, so I decided to knock it on the head. When horses start falling for you on the flat (which happened to me twice that season), you know it's time to give up.

Since then, I've limited myself to small fixed odds bets and I've never bet much on football matches - it's always just a bit of entertainment rather than a genuine attempt to win proper money, and I almost always bet accumulators rather than individual games. I love it, though. The Racing Post football form pages are brilliant, I really enjoy reading those, so I'm looking forward to buying a copy again on Saturday. That'll be a little bit of normality at least.

[insider]

It can be a dangerous and expensive pastime if you get carried away, which has happened to me in the past.

I've gone through various gambling phases during my life. When I started visiting bookies (aged about 17 or 18), I'd bet on anything that moved and that was the case for more than a decade. I was hopeless and lost loads of money during that phase. Then I woke up and decided I either had to start taking it a lot more seriously or give it up.

I used to bet on the horses and devised my own kind of system based on the Racing Post form and speed ratings. I stuck to that religiously for around six or seven years and was very disciplined with it, starting each season with a betting bank of £250 and betting regularly but carefully. I won decent sums of money for five seasons on the trot and placed some big bets by my standard during that time. The most I ever put on one horse was £800 (Tumbleweed Pearl, it won a maiden at Bath easily at 6/4, so a £2,000 cash return on the day) and the most I ever lost in one bet was £500 (the horse was called Charnwood Forest and the one that beat it by a nose was called First Island - I'll never forget that). I shudder to think of placing bets like those now.

Then I had a disastrous season in 2000 or 2001 - my betting bank disappeared fairly quickly, as did the replacement sum when I tried to double up, so I decided to knock it on the head. When horses start falling for you on the flat (which happened to me twice that season), you know it's time to give up.

Since then, I've limited myself to small fixed odds bets and I've never bet much on football matches - it's always just a bit of entertainment rather than a genuine attempt to win proper money, and I almost always bet accumulators rather than individual games. I love it, though. The Racing Post football form pages are brilliant, I really enjoy reading those, so I'm looking forward to buying a copy again on Saturday. That'll be a little bit of normality at least.

Just wish i had your will power.
I don't bet anywhere what I used to bet but I still wish I either ceased or bet less.
Don't get me wrong I am financially sound but it's that hollow feeling when you spunk money up the wall again that I have had enough of.
The feeling when you win is great but it's only a lend till you give it back.

[delmbox]

92 days without a bet today.

8 more to the magic 100 milestone

Tenner says you make it

[xsnaggle]

See the other thread. I was actually having a good season before the lockdown.

Apart from not being able to go to gigs or the football, my biggest saving has come from HMV and Waterstones being shut. I usually spend a small fortune in those places. Difficult to work out how they are going to operate when they're eventually allowed to open again considering a large percentage of their sales must come from compulsive browsers like me.

The MD of Waterstone's was on the TV the other day. He said the biggest threat they foresaw was the lack of brousability after lockdown.

[lardy]

The MD of Waterstone's was on the TV the other day. He said the biggest threat they foresaw was the lack of brousability after lockdown.

What is brousability?

[A Quiet Monkfish]

I occasionally have a dabble on the fixed odds but nothing like I did 20-30yrs ago. Two reasons. First, the percentage of home wins has fallen - picking " 6 homes" or any 5 from 6 used to be a good return, say 20/1. Secondly the odds have shortened all round, the bookies/betting companies taking a much bigger slice. I've read they take around 10%, but reckon it's nearer 20%..

[xsnaggle]

What is brousability?

The xsnagggle dictionary of made up Engnish words defines it as : The ability to be broused or to be used for brousing.