Re regional racing and the Tote. When I had something of a gambling addiction I used a Mecca bookies in Buckingham Palace Road, near work. I only really started gambling because of something mentioned upthread it think, where I had a good win on my first bet and thought "this is easy".
Anyway the manager was mixed up in a betting ring who used to make loads of money via the Tote. The way it went was that a few of them would go to what would then have been a sparsely attended mid week race meeting at a remote course like Cartmel.
By betting on not very large amount they'd manipulate the prices on the Tote. Usually making a hot favourite into at best a very lukewarm favourite by backing against it. The off course team would visit bookies around London placing large bets on the favourite at Tote prices. So it might end up equal to 2 to 1 or better with the Tote (which was a genuine pool with the winning return determined by the proportion of money staked) but the SP would be 4/9 in the bookies, because bets placed at the bookies were not added to the actual Tote pool.
It was the bookies being stung really as they couldn't lay off the bets then like they can (and do) now. They wanted to take Tote bets to get the income though, and I expect in the scheme of things the scams were small enough that the income outweighed the risk. There used to be plenty of scams in dog and horse racing.
My recollection was that off course tote betting was discontinued in the 80s or 90s, probably almost as a direct result of this kind of scam, except for in the Tote's own shops which were linked to the on-course pool. Then more recently (like in the noughties or whatever, I don't follow racing much now) everything got joined up and you can do a certain amount fo Tote bets off course in any bookies. May be wrong with that bit though.
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Deal or no deal new
Deal or no deal new
