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Once upon a time it was perfectly legal to advertise cigarettes in kid's shows...

This is what you see when you want to check the ladder in AFL-W today. You can click on those blue boxes to take you to the Sportsbet website. It is enabled by default - you have to click the Settings button to turn it off.

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Personally I think it's something the AFL shouldn't do, but again too much money involved.

So easy to turn off by a parent then.

That's all that's needed.

If you couldn't turn it off then that would need to be changed.
 
We should add - it's not just about separating kids and adults here.

Adults are the ones who get addicted to gambling and manage to throw their lives away. It's not just a job of separating gambling advertising and kids - it's also about managing an addiction that very much affects adults.
Yep - you can pretend addiciton doesn't happen.
And you can blame addicts and say "well they had choices" and ignore the fact their families and friends get ripped to shreds in the process.
Or you can care about the negative effects of gambling and look into why it occurs at a societal level and look at ways of reducing the harm.
 
So easy to turn off by a parent then.

That's all that's needed.

If you couldn't turn it off then that would need to be changed.

Any child with internet access can access Sportsbet simply by clicking one link in the AFL website. The AFL website is not blocked by any parental controls or filter, so even if the Sportsbet website is blocked by a filter, the premiership odds are still clearly visible on the ladder. A visitor to the AFL website has the Sportsbet odds and links turned on by default.

If you are of the opinion it's not a problem, then that's your prerogative. I am strongly opposed to the normalisation of gambling.
 

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Any child with internet access can access Sportsbet simply by clicking one link in the AFL website.

And then what? What comes next?

Nothing is the answer.

The AFL website is not blocked by any parental controls or filter, so even if the Sportsbet website is blocked by a filter, the premiership odds are still clearly visible on the ladder. A visitor to the AFL website has the Sportsbet odds and links turned on by default.

If you are of the opinion it's not a problem, then that's your prerogative. I am strongly opposed to the normalisation of gambling.

You talk like gambling isn't normal. It's very normal in the history of the world.
 
The problem with getting free drinks in Vegas is, you have to drink them in Vegas.
If you want to get smashed around a bunch of ****ing losers for cheap just head to your local pokies joint.
You can gamble there too, bonus!!!
I had an awesome time in Vegas when I went 25 years ago. But I had a medicore time when I went 5 years ago.

Different place these days! 25 years ago people went to 'experience' Vegas. 5 years ago it felt like 99% of the people were there to 'see' it.
 
I had an awesome time in Vegas when I went 25 years ago. But I had a medicore time when I went 5 years ago.

Different place these days! 25 years ago people went to 'experience' Vegas. 5 years ago it felt like 99% of the people were there to 'see' it.
Pretty ****ed these days i hear. Overpriced. I went twice as well. Once with 5 mates for 4 days when i estimate i had 25 minutes sleep in total. Once with the missus when we went to the US for a few weeks. You guess which time was more fun...
 
The problem with getting free drinks in Vegas is, you have to drink them in Vegas.
If you want to get smashed around a bunch of ****ing losers for cheap just head to your local pokies joint.
You can gamble there too, bonus!!!
An old work colleague of mine arranged a rogue Xmas party for a bunch of dudes at my work about 30 years ago at the strippers. It was the night before our actual work Xmas party at the office the next day.
After we finished at the nudie bar, I jumped in a cab to go home as I had a CabCharge on me. One of my workmates asked for a lift home and given it was on the company dime, I obliged.
The taxi went past the casino and he asked me how much cash I had on me..
I had $3 to my name. He had 4.

He tried to convince me to go to Cas because between us we had enough for a round of Two Up (which for the non gambling degenerates out there, was the minimum Two Up bet).

"But...." I said, "...if we get out of the cab, I'll have to use the CabCharge and then neither of us will be able to get home. I only have 3 bucks left on me."
I also pointed out that it was 12am, and our work Xmas party started in about 11 hours.

But, to his credit, he made a solid pitch that it was actually a really bad idea NOT to go to the casino with $7 and play Two Up. The man was speaking sense. Preach brother, preach.

So we quickly told the cabbie to pull over out the front of the Cas and we made a beeline to the Two Up section. It was heaving by that stage on a Thursday night in late December, and as we pushed our way to front of the betting ring we began to strategise as to whether we'd bet on Heads or Tails with our sole $5 bet.


Anyway....yadda yadda yadda...we both rocked up to the work Xmas party the next day straight from the Cas, in the same clothes, no sleep (although my mate did attempt a nap behind a pokie at one stage about 5am but the cleaners kept waking him up with their vacuum), blind drunk with over $100 cash each in our pockets.


Now, the moral of the story is this kids....whilst gambling can be bad - it can also be very, very, very fun.
 
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An old work colleague of mine arranged a rogue Xmas party for a bunch of dudes at my work about 30 years ago at the strippers. It was the night before our actual work Xmas party at the office the next day.
After we finished at the nudie bar, I jumped in a cab to go home as I had a CabCharge on me. One of my workmates asked for a lift home and given it was on the company dime, I obliged.
The taxi went past the casino and he asked me how much cash I had on me..
I had $3 to my name. He had 4.

He tried to convince me to go to Cas because between us we had enough for a round of Two Up (which for the non gambling degenerates out there, was the minimum Two Up bet).

"But...." I said, "...if we get out of the cab, I'll have to use the CabCharge and then neither of us will be able to get home. I only have 3 bucks left on me."
I also pointed out that it was 12am, and our work Xmas party started in about 11 hours.

But, to his credit, he made a solid pitch that it was actually a really bad idea NOT to go to the casino with $7 and play Two Up. The man was speaking sense. Preach brother, preach.

So we quickly told the cabbie to pull over out the front of the Cas and we made a beeline to the Two Up section. It was heaving by that stage on a Thursday night in late December, and as we pushed our way to front of the betting ring we began to strategise as to whether we'd bet on Heads or Tails.


Anyway....yadda yadda yadda...we both rocked up to the work Xmas party the next day straight from the Cas, in the same clothes, no sleep (although my mate did attempt a nap behind a pokie at one stage about 5am but the cleaners kept waking him up with their vacuum), blind drunk with over $100 cash each in our pockets.


Now, the moral of the story is this kids....whilst gambling can be bad - it can also be very, very, very fun.

Lavender, did this work colleague happen to be Meteoric Rise?
 
Yep - you can pretend addiciton doesn't happen.
And you can blame addicts and say "well they had choices" and ignore the fact their families and friends get ripped to shreds in the process.
Or you can care about the negative effects of gambling and look into why it occurs at a societal level and look at ways of reducing the harm.
Yep - addiction experts the world over are pretty much united in saying that addiction is complex, multi-factored, and nowhere near as simple as saying that adults have free will so it's their problem and theirs alone.
 
Females are a perfect example of that. They have far less interest than males when it comes to gambling.
Because they're shit at it. All the women I know (three in total) lack the required skills and abilities required for punting. Logic, common sense and impulse control are all deeply prohibitive to being wealthy and successful from putting money on greyhounds.

As an aside, I wonder why women might not resonate with advertisments like this?
Sportsbet-The-Least-You-Can-Do-768x388-1-e1632443853689.png


Who doesn't look at this lard arse in his IKEA display home and think: "yup, I wanna be just like that!"
 
That little tagline at the end isn't worth shit. It's a tiny fig leaf throwaway after 45 seconds of Mick Molloy-style weeeey heyyyyyy shouting at you to punt with mates, with popping colours and blaring music gambleresponsibly

Even the tagline itself is meaningless. I mean, "gamble responsibly" literally tells you to gamble. It's as useless as saying "drink wise".
Just like those "steal discretely" and "murder subtly" ads
 

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Yep - addiction experts the world over are pretty much united in saying that addiction is complex, multi-factored, and nowhere near as simple as saying that adults have free will so it's their problem and theirs alone.
That’s why the Whitlams song was so haunting. Pokies not punting but same….

Don't, don't explain
Lots of little victories take on the pain
It takes so long to earn
You can double up or you can burn, you can burn

And I wish I, wish I knew the right words
To make you feel better, walk out of this place
And defeat them in your secret battle
Show them you can be your own man again
 

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An old work colleague of mine arranged a rogue Xmas party for a bunch of dudes at my work about 30 years ago at the strippers. It was the night before our actual work Xmas party at the office the next day.
After we finished at the nudie bar, I jumped in a cab to go home as I had a CabCharge on me. One of my workmates asked for a lift home and given it was on the company dime, I obliged.
The taxi went past the casino and he asked me how much cash I had on me..
I had $3 to my name. He had 4.

He tried to convince me to go to Cas because between us we had enough for a round of Two Up (which for the non gambling degenerates out there, was the minimum Two Up bet).

"But...." I said, "...if we get out of the cab, I'll have to use the CabCharge and then neither of us will be able to get home. I only have 3 bucks left on me."
I also pointed out that it was 12am, and our work Xmas party started in about 11 hours.

But, to his credit, he made a solid pitch that it was actually a really bad idea NOT to go to the casino with $7 and play Two Up. The man was speaking sense. Preach brother, preach.

So we quickly told the cabbie to pull over out the front of the Cas and we made a beeline to the Two Up section. It was heaving by that stage on a Thursday night in late December, and as we pushed our way to front of the betting ring we began to strategise as to whether we'd bet on Heads or Tails with our sole $5 bet.


Anyway....yadda yadda yadda...we both rocked up to the work Xmas party the next day straight from the Cas, in the same clothes, no sleep (although my mate did attempt a nap behind a pokie at one stage about 5am but the cleaners kept waking him up with their vacuum), blind drunk with over $100 cash each in our pockets.


Now, the moral of the story is this kids....whilst gambling can be bad - it can also be very, very, very fun.
I did a bit of work with Peter Daicos many years ago, and he told me a story - most likely another generic sportsman's night gag - about a lawyer mate of his that was a bigtime gambler.

Every Friday night this lawyer bloke would head down to Crown and go large - sometimes walk out with $10k+, or other times be down about the same ... never any middle ground.

One night he had a shocker, and jumped in the back seat of a cab at the rank outside the casino to head home, penniless. These were the cash-only days, so when he told the driver that when they got to his house in the suburbs, that he'd need to run inside and grab some money off the missus to pay for the fare, the cabbie freaked out - "I know your sort blah blah", and pulled over on the Eastern Fwy and dropped the lawyer out right there, 2am and stranded, both blokes very pissed off at each other for different reasons.

On another Friday night some months later, the lawyer had a massive win, leaving the casino with $20k and hitting the cab rank to get a lift home.

As he wandered along the rank, who did he see at about 10th in line but that same cabbie that had ditched him on the side of the freeway a couple of months earlier.

He kept walking, got in the front of the leading cab and said to the cabbie - "Blackburn North thanks mate. And I tell you what, I'll throw in an extra fifty if you give me a blowjob"

Understandably, the cabbie lost his shit, and booted the lawyer out of his cab.

Lawyer repeats the stunt with cabbie second in the rank. Same result.

And same result all the way down the line until he reached the cabbie who'd booted him months earlier. Lawyer gets in the front seat, turns to old mate and says "Blackburn North thanks mate. And I tell you what, I'll throw in an extra fifty if you smile and wave to all of your cabbie mates as you pass by them in the rank"
 
We should add - it's not just about separating kids and adults here.

Adults are the ones who get addicted to gambling and manage to throw their lives away. It's not just a job of separating gambling advertising and kids - it's also about managing an addiction that very much affects adults.

Or maybe it's about teaching them how to gamble properly so they stop losing and start winning?
 
In ten years AI is going to wipe out half the job market, so we really can't afford not to introduce children to betting IMO.
The earlier the better I say.

Maybe once Sam's finished up spruking his "safe and healthy" betting system at the Horse Racing Betting carnival we can get Bluey in for the Melbourne Cup?
 
I’ve met some TOPS punters in my time. Really put the effort in, kept spreadsheets, knew all the odds and had a system. They were so good it surprised me they didn’t drive sports cars and spend their weekends at their country estate shooting deer and grouse.

One was so good I lent him $50 a couple of times when he was short so he didn’t miss out on an upcoming SURE THING.

I really want a slice of the action so I’ve decided to take the day off and get into some keno with the cool kids. I might take my mum, she’s 80 but she’s not lived yet!
 

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