Ladbrokes anounces record profits.

Frank I don't think Ladbrokes operate the gambling machines, as you call them.

However, if you are using that machine as an illustration as to the public's attitude to gambling in general, then I suppose it might be indicative.

The machine had a Ladbrokes label on it so I presume it is in some way related to Ladbrokes.
I think we should have a 50% gambling tax as people who can use these machines must be rich.

Frank

Frank you're doing it again! Please Don't make these sweeping statements!

I don't actually play fruit machines etc, although a pub I used to frequent years ago had a quiz machine that I played, it was eventually taken away because some people were winning too often!

However yet again, as with your posts on smoking, you are making a judgement without knowing these peoples financial situation at all!

I'm not surprised Ladbrokes along with all the other Bookmakers are make record profits with all the online gambling that is now going on.. it makes the whole thing anonymous and much simpler for people to participate without being obvious to family etc. You usually find the people that use machines in pubs and bars are the ones that can least afford to play.

No Frank the people who are tempted to gamble the most are those who don't have a lot to spend on exciting hobbies, a little gamble brings spice into their lives.

They hope to make a fortune - and every week they hear of someone who has packed in their boring job because they won £X,000 or £X million with a one pound stake. They don't hear about the millions of other people who have been putting down a one pound stake every week for years without winning anything.

No, Frank, it is not rich people who play the machines or bet on horses. It's people who hope and even believe, against all the evidence, that one roll of the dice, one turn of the roulette wheel will make them instantly rich. Gambling is an addiction, or can quickly become one and some victims of this addiction will beg, borrow or steal to be able to pursue this dream. I have met despairing wives whose husbands have taken all the rent money, all the child benefit, all the cash earmarked for the meter and left them with no money to buy Christmas presents for the kids to put it all on a horse which inevitably didn't win.

The bus that I was on, on Sunday morning went past Ladbrokes - and of course they're open on a Sunday now. A small girl was waiting alone in the doorway. A sign of the times perhaps.

I thought you had to be at least 16 to go in to Ladbrokes.

Frank

Frank.....I said she was standing in the doorway.

According to you, Frank, anyone who smokes, drinks or gambles must be rich (and of course, you couldn't afford it!). But you drive 1,000 miles a month and seem to have a comfortable lifestyle - why keep carping on about what other people spend their money on?

I did not say anybody who drinks must be rich.
I like my glass of wine in the evening as long as I am not driving.

Frank

I wouldn't dream of going into a Ladbrokes . Now, William Hills is a different matter . My second home .

Splitting hairs there, Frank. You did say you have to be rich these days to go to the pub!

Hi Tegan

Are you rich?.

Frank how would you react if someone posted something along the lines of "I think people who live in houses larger than their needs and have a car less than 3 years old and drive 1,000 miles a month, must be rich, so lets think of an extra tax that we can levy on them"

I try, I really do, and have done on more than one occasion to see where you are coming from (I think I posted something on a thread of yours quite recently stating that I think you are well intentioned but perhaps naive) but sometimes you do try my patience!

And as for asking Tegan if she is rich, that is impolite.

And I will have you know that it is possible to follow horse racing as a hobby, and get just as much pleasure from the occasional 50p each way bet as the higher end of the "gambling" market.

And I will go now before I start another sentence with "and".

Be warned, my dander is up!

Hooray for Phoenix' dander a, nay it ever get upper!

May!!!!!!!

Galen my dander is not often up on here, but when my dander is up, well, just look out, that's all I can say!

(PS I do mean "dander" don't I? Or have I got the wrong word?)

No! Dander is correct

Thanks Galen I thought it was but then had a moment of doubt, as it is a word that is not much used these days!

Anyway, all else aside, my dander does seem to be up.

(Still not quite sure exactly what a dander is, and perhaps more importantly how to get it down once it is up. I suppose being the sort of person who thinks in pictures, I'm imagining a dander as a sort of goose shaped umbrella................ I really should get out more)

Right, sorry for the diversion back to Franks gambling topic. (All ears emoticon)

Phoenix I had a mental image of a goose too
But apparently it's something to do with dandruff www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/get-your-dander-up.html or, if you don't like that idea, it's something to do with the fermentation process [mind boggles emoticon]

Well, there's a thing! Now that you have posted that link jane I do seem to remember a reference to "dander" as in sort of scurf/dead skin etc somewhere. Perhaps it was Shakespeare?

(See, yet again I am so easily led away from the original topic!)

Hi thee to
Lils