October
JanuaryWinners not welcome
If you are fortunate enough to be in the small minority of punters who win, you can expect some special treatment from corporate bookmakers.
The corporates are quick to restrict any punting activities in which a particular punter has shown that he or she can win.
For example, if you’re successful in punting on provincial or country races they just ban you from betting on these events and restrict you to city races, where it must be much harder to make a profit. If you are successful on these then you just get banned altogether and your account closed. Another favoured method is to restrict individual punters to ridiculous win limits such as $150.
After this happened to me I complained to the Northern Territory ombudsman, who advised: "Sports Bookmakers, like all businesses, are, as part of their commercial practice and rules, able to close a client’s account for any reason and also place restrictions on a client’s account.
"The Commission has no issue with this practice as it is the Bookmaker’s commercial decision, which is to their benefit or risk."
In this country you cannot be discriminated against because of colour, creed, weight, gender, religion or disability. How can you possibly be discriminated against because you may be a better judge than another punter?
The following are quotes from the Queensland anti-discrimination act:
"In general terms, discrimination is any practice that makes distinctions between individuals or groups so as to disadvantage some and advantage others.
"To decide whether discrimination has occurred involves a comparison between how the person has been treated, and how another person without that ‘attribute’ or with a different attribute is treated."
Surely the time has come for governments to ensure that all corporate bookmakers are required to set all punters up to a reasonable limit (as with on-track bookmakers) and not just allow them to rob the mugs.
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