TURN UP FOR THE BOOKIES

Yesterday I bumped into promoters of the tote PHUMELELA'S Nico Kritsiotis and Vee Moodley at Bedford Center, I chatted briefly to Nico about how empty the new VIP lounge is every day, what a waste, this led us to the exclusion incident on the opening night of the VIP lounge at the Bedford Center tote, I expressed to him as I stated in my article that not inviting us in on opening night was not a good thing for the promotion of the tote as we are all fair size spenders and Patrick in particular is a big spender, now on principle we won’t go there even though its tailor made for avid punters like us, we are always in and out of Bedford Center and have contributed to pools for many years.

Nico politely explained that the opening night was by invitation for betting world account holders only or racegoers with a turnover more than 60k per month, not buying that and having seen otherwise I responded that at the very least he could have excluded me if I by having a voice have become an “enemy” and invite the rest of my party in, after all they equate to turnover, Nico seems to have forgotten that he interviewed me on Telly Track or its equal some years back as one of the biggest and most successful horse betting players in SA, I also suggested that as an alternative he could have let the lovely eye candy ladies open and fill out the betting account forms for the guys who could have brought in their proof of address etc the next day and he would have won over lifetime tote supporters, I then stated that it was my opinion that if it was some big name racing people sitting there instead of us he would have bent over backwards to assist them and would have sprinted over to invite them in, but luckily this was not the case as he probably would have tripped over someone on his knees busy kissing big name butt.

At that point their other guest arrived and I left, as I walked away I could not help myself to wonder why they, who are paid to serve racing and promote the tote never took the opportunity to make amends in any way, they could have offered me a betting voucher or two, I hear they are handed out like candy to those in favour, why exclude me and my circle after all the trouble they went through to promote the tote and down bookmakers on Telly Track recently, was my money really different to everybody else's.

True to form after a (good) few whiskeys Patrick Kalil of Paddy K fame told us he got a message from Vee apologizing for the incident and a promise to make it up to him, maybe I should shut my mouth and get into line, then again maybe not, I wonder how long it will take for Clyde to phone and cancel their ad. will he also cite 'cant afford it' or is that line played out.

As it happened today we got an invite to a braai at bookmaker Mark Micheal’s betting shop in Meyersdal, what a difference, real VIP treatment, no one excluded, the totes loss is the bookmakers gain, just reminded me of all the reasons that bookmakers have such a huge customer base, friendly staff, racing educated, willing to go the extra mile for you the customer, with Mark and Johnny right there attending to your needs, giving stretches without you even asking, in general a very pleasant atmosphere, then I reflected on when Fransie Botha lost his first fight in Australia, bookmaker Lance Michael and some other bookmaking outfits refunded punters their full losing stake because they agreed that the public had been ripped off with the 10 round saga, now how on earth can the tote match that.