Bored of the rings

Being fed up of the Olympic Hoo-Haa and being "bored of the rings" I started to watch something different on television last night. It was a program about the upsurge of betting shops on the high street in the UK. Even ministers from the previous administration admit that relaxing the stranglehold on gambling had been a bad move.

Like weeds on a bombsite. Wherever the number of out-of-work populace is high, so are the number of betting shops. In effect the people who can least afford it are encouraged to gamble - in a similar strategy to winning the lottery. If you don't win this time then gamble some more in an attempt to win back your losses. Your losses grow until all of your money is gone.

My dad was a gambler - however he was not very popular with the bookies. He had a very bad habit of winning. He might go weeks without placing a bet but he would study form everyday. He loved the whole spectacle of horse racing. However, when it came to investing on a horse had several different basic strategies that he would stick to.

The first one was: Never bet on a horse jumping over fences, any horse can fall at a fence. Every fence is a bookies friend.

The second one was: Never bet on a horse where there is a big field. Every other horse except yours is running for the benefit of the bookie.

The third one was: Only bet with money you can afford to loose.

The fourth one was: Never place more than one bet on any day.

The fifth one was: Multi horse bets (doubles and trebles) favour the bookie.

Now, there is another surge on the high street its in the number of charity shops. Where one persons unwanted items are recycled for other people to get some benefit from.

Often the explosion of out of town supermarkets has speeded up the demise of the traditional high street. But the effect of the supermarket is far reaching - how many people have a milkman visiting their doorstep each day and who has the dairy farmers over a barrel. There are many changes on the high street and some are less obvious than others. All seem detrimental to the area around the high street!


Later.....