Ladbrokes new piece of tech is clever,but pushes the bounds of acceptability.

[quincunx]

I went into a Ladbrokes betting shop today,and asked for odds on UKIP [the UK independence party] to win 4 seats at the forthcoming general election.The staff member managed to find the odds,and told me I could bet a hundred pounds [I had written a hundred and eighty on the slip].So I agreed to bet a hundred pounds and handed over the cash.
That's where the trouble started.I asked for the betting slip/receipt but the staff member seemed to think she'd given it to me.She asked me to double-check that I didn't already have it,which I did.She then consulted a colleague.Finally,she offered me my stake back.
It turned out there had never been a slip-receipt,because Ladbrokes' system had never accepted my bet - despite having indicating that it would accept it.When the staff-member had attempted to place the bet,Ladbrokes' system had rejected it and suspended betting on four seats [you could still bet on other seat numbers].
I have no idea whether Ladbrokes do this online as well.It is misleading because they are indicating that certain odds are available,but if you try to place a bet they don't want they effectively refuse it entirely.

 

[Trevrizent]

Further proof (as if we needed any) of Ladbrokes' unwillingness to lay a decent bet these days. What will they do if the Government bans FOBTs? Go back to being a bookmaker perhaps?

 

[quincunx]

Sadly,the Government is unlikely to ban fixed-odds betting terminals because they have become an important source of tax revenue - and the UK is so cash-strapped that this outweighs social considerations for them.

 

[yourmum]

Sounds weird to me. Did the cashier type in into the system manually or did you use a handwritten betting slip?

If you used a hand written slip then the system couldn't have refused it and the cashier must have fucked up.

It could be that there was a significant shift on the exchanges on this particular bet so the traders suspended the market.

If the market was suspended and the cashier tried to manually type it in. The system wouldn't have allowed them to type it in and a message would have come up on the till / terminal.

 

[quincunx]

I used a handwritten slip,but Ladbrokes have a system where the shop is like a client/punter trying to place a bet.They may also have an internal system that they can use for certain types of bet.Betting on the selection was only suspended when the staff-member tried to input my bet - that obviously wasn't a coincidence,although perhaps Ladbrokes wanted me to believe that it was a coincidence.
TBF I suppose it is possible that a smaller bet may have been accepted,but that my maximum triggered some sort of protection system because their book was already unbalanced.I'm being naive in my old-fashioned view that they ought to take some sort of bet once they've quoted odds - they want to discourage clued-up punters.Bit hard on the staff who have just told the punter he could have the bet - and they are agents of Ladbrokes.That's the unacceptable part.

 

[Trevrizent]

Interesting to read that Ladbrokes Ireland have recently had to be granted protection from their creditors for three months. It's no coincidence that FOBTs have been banned in Ireland.