Sunday 25 January 2009

Sharp Minds


The subject of whether or not the gambling industry should do more to protect those individuals who are incapable of looking after themselves was a topic that was discussed here earlier this month.

I was reminded of it when I read a post on another blog (the author wishes to remain anonymous to protect the anonymous individuals he was posting about).

The post was titled: How To Open An Account With Betfair and read:

I’ve had a couple people ask me about opening an account with Betfair. Once you click the link below it will open the Betfair home page. I have shown the top part of this page below the link. There are two places to click, one being the top left of the page where it says “Open an Account” or there is also a spot on the right with a green arrow. This will go to a page to enter in your information.

Now seriously, should anyone be allowed to open, fund and operate any kind of account if they are incapable of opening it for themselves? I mean, it's not exactly rocket science. It's hard to imagine anyone but a complete half-wit (or former President) doing anything other than simply go to the web site, click on the link that says "Open An Account" and follow the instructions. I think that anyone who has to be guided through this tricky process would be well advised to forget about it. I would be astonished if one person asked me for help, never mind a couple!

The comment I posted, but which was later removed, was this:

"I'm confused as to why people wouldn't just go to the Betfair site, look up how to open an account and follow the instructions. People who need to ask someone else how to open an account are probably not the sharp minds that will find Betfair profitable."

The reply, exactly as received, was: "You are likely right about that, I cannot approve the comment as it would be an insult to the intelligance of some."

I'm not sure that someone needing help opening an account would have the intelligence to recognise any insult, but anyway, before anyone asks, if you need help opening your Betfair, BETDAQ, WBX or any other betting exchange account, forget it. You'd be better off playing Bingo.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cassini,

I later found out the reason those individuals were having trouble with opening a Betfair account was that they were located in the United States. (Betfair does not allow those in the U.S. to have accounts)

theBA

Cassini said...

But they would have been given a message saying something like "Betfair does not accept accounts from US residents". Why would they think that you would be able to help them get round that?

Anyway, I was wondering if you could help me circumvent the 5-second delay on the in-play markets.

Anonymous said...

I doubt you are able to get around the 5 or 8 second delay on in-play markets.

theBA