Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
More Betting Shop Related Crime
Tags for Forum Posts: betting shops
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Malcolm on
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Yes, armed robbery is horrible, wrong and we should try to both deter and catch the perpetrators.
But it seems odd to blame the bookies for "attracting" the crime. Banks get robbed. The Somerfield on Tottenham lane gets robbed (so frequently it had to close earlier). Jewellers get robbed (none of those on Green Lanes are there?).
You might not like bookies, but blaming the victims seems a bit harsh. On that logic, crime is also attracted to the area because of all the houses (Haringey has highest burglary rate in London) so we should get rid of the houses.
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Permalink Reply by james walsh on
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Malcom.
With respect, Have you been in a bookies shop ? People are not there to do regular buisiness as in a bank or to buy jewelry etc.
Saying that, thank heavens for people like the poet Charles Buckowski.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRc6mHS9PjE
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Thanks James. Cheered me up no end.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Agree, James. Bookmakers are a wholly different kind of business which is why they are licensed and have a special kind of licence applicable to them alone.
Except that the current government has created a significantly more permissive licensing regime. It's regrettable that our local council has promoted gambling in our Charity (Alexandra Palace). But the government's relaxation of gambling laws has forced ordinary members of the community to spend much time fighting these operations. IMHO, when the government slackened the gambling laws, they were looking only at the increased taxes and ignored the social consequences.
A bookies isn't a regular business. Most businesses add value by supplying goods and services and as a result, both parties to the transaction are better off. What do bookmakers put back into local communities?
Not only do betting shops not add value, what they amount to is not even a zero sum game. It is a sub-zero sum game. If you gamble long enough, you will lose. I cannot understand why, unlike other licensed activities like alcohol or tobacco, there is no health warning on the windows. Mug punters are only told about what they can win, not about their chances of losing.
What is the definition of a satisfied customer of a bookies?! When he wins (and the bookies loses)! When a customer of a bookies loses, the result is sometimes vandalism of the fixed odds betting terminals, or of the premises, or attacks on staff. When a customer in a supermarket is dissatisfied, this is normally dealt with at the customer service desk and often resolved.
Betting is mainly a cash business and attracts crime just as the physical movement of large sums of cash by security guards attracts robbers. But beyond cash, anyone who has worked in the more sensitive parts of a retail bank knows that customer debts directly related to betting are a big problem.
I do not seek remotely to justify attacks on staff. Typically, the staff themselves don't gamble and probably know better than most what a cynical, exploitative business in which they're employed.
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Actually Malcolm, the type of housing which Haringey has i.e. poorly maintained HMOS with bad security are, according to the police, the reason that burglary is such a problem in this area. In many case, a burglar can get into a property and rob 4 or 5 people all of which are recorded as seperate crimes. So in fact crime is attracted to easy pickings and certain types of property. Thus, if we did get rid of these slum landlords, chances are we would see the figures for burglary fall.
I don't think it is the case that people don't like bookies, in my youth I used them myself, but it is the sheer number and the poor security and cavalier way that they are run by the companies that are the cause for concern. 8 on a strip the size of Green Lanes bridge to Colina is an awful lot.
Of course they will attract robbery, they are often staffed by one frightened female, they are open at hours when few people are about and they have huge sums of money just lying about. Easy target, just like the HMOs.
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Permalink Reply by Anette on
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Gambling on horses is considered a hobby?? Sorry, I am completely baffled. A vice, yes. A hobby, no.
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Why are you baffled, Anette? Where would the Sport of Kings, Queens, Emirs, Sheikhs and ordinary folk be without a flutter? I agree fully with Alan Wylie on this one. Hobbies, by definition, are what we enjoy spending our spare time on. Let's not start laying down new laws on what other people's hobbies or vices should be. OK, off my hobbyhorse now.
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So if I enjoyed smoking crack on my garden wall and called that a hobby, would that be considered an actual hobby? Because I enjoyed it in my spare time? Still don't agree.
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Permalink Reply by Birdy_Too on
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You do enjoy a glass of wine or two Anette, I would have thought you're not a raging alchy?
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I am not classifying a glass of wine of an evening as a "hobby". There's the difference. If I had wine drinking as a hobby then I might have a slight problem, yes. That's my point.
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Hobby was the wrong word to use maybe, but you can also link alcohol to many a crime. I cannot understand for the life of me why anyone would want to bet, I have never liked using animals such a way, but I digress. I would imagine it's a similar experience, a social outing both of them you end up losing money and pissing it up the wall.
I dunna mind a few betting shops as I dunna mind a few pubs. I would not want eight pubs in such a short space.
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