Madoff With Our Money

Nick followed up with some more details on how the minimum bet rule works in Australia:

Dear Sir,

A follow up to my previous comments.

Australian internet bookmakers are not allowed to close an account simply due to someone backing winners. They can if you have breached terms and conditions. They also have to re open accounts that had been previously closed by them.

There is no provision for minimum bets on sport. Given the world wide liquidity on sport and the small price fluctuations (especially compared to racing), then barring or severely restricting punters on sport makes no sense at all.

To be able to win betting (trading) on racing and sport involves knowledge, bankroll and discipline and the amount of people who have all these traits (and you need all of them) is very small. There are lots of people who have knowledge and bankroll but no discipline and they just add the pool of losing punters.

If a "problem gambler" and by that i mean a person who has excluded themselves from betting is seen to be betting then it is an offence under legislation.

Without wishing to appear cynical.........but why not, it's not in a bookmakers interest to stop people from losing money.

I know of an employee of Centrebet who advised the powers that be of a client who appeared to a possible addict. They assured him that they were aware of this client and that everything was above board and ok.....

Finance chief 'swindled $7m' to fund gambling addiction: police

Enough for now.....again

Cheers Nick

I have to admit Australia seems to be heading in the right direction on this issue. While I've argued previously that you can't force a business to transact with someone they don't want to, since bookmakers require a licence, it wouldn't be too difficult to make this a condition of the licence. 

I'm warming to the idea. This might actually push the dinosaur bookies into the 21st century, and make them concentrate on producing sharper lines.

As someone who has had accounts closed years ago for betting on sports, which was frankly ridiculous, I have my doubts that in practice this would work quite as well as advertised, and it's hard to see the UK's Gambling Commission taking such a step any time soon, but gambling laws change. It was only in 1960 that off-course bookmakers were legalised, and only 12 years ago that the new Gambling Act was passed in 2005. 

As for Nick's closing story, it's no surprise that bookmakers wouldn't try too hard to stop a problem gambler from handing over his money. 

From Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, to Bernard L. Madoff to the standard member of Congress fighting tirelessly to further the interests of campaign donors, human history is full of examples of money’s ability to weaken even the firmest ethical backbone.

Perhaps the best piece of Nick's response were his comments on the skills required to be successful long-term, which can't be emphasised enough:

To be able to win betting (trading) on racing and sport involves knowledge, bankroll and discipline and the amount of people who have all these traits (and you need all of them) is very small. There are lots of people who have knowledge and bankroll but no discipline and they just add [to] the pool of losing punters.

Under the category of 'bankroll', and related to the original topic, I would include "access to the betting markets". You may well have funds available, but if you can't find a market maker willing to work with you, it's a problem.

One other comment on these skills is that if you possess them, you are wasting an opportunity to capitalise on them if you use them for betting full-time.