If you’ve ever placed a bet in person rather than online, the reality is that you’ll have been into the likes of a betting shop at some point in the past. Quite what your experience will have been will differ depending on countless different factors, including the likes of where in the world the betting shop was located and what your behaviour was like whilst you were in there.
There are numerous different people that work in betting shops in order to keep them ticking over, from cleaners to managers and cashiers, each with a different role.
The role that you’re assigned will obvious result in you needing to do different things, depending on what it is. If you’re a cleaner, for example, then your role will predominantly be about ensuring that the venue is clean and tidy, without the need to be at all customer facing at any point during your time there. If, on the other hand, you’re the cashier, you will be expected to deal with members of the public that are in the shop because they’re looking to place a bet and will need someone to take their money and give them a receipt for their bet.
Cashiers Will Be Treated Like Idiots
If you’re working as a cashier, your job is to take the bets of the people that have called into the shop to place. They will hand you their betting slip as well as the money that they want to place on it, with your main responsibility being to enter it into the computer in order to ensure that the bet is placed fairly.
People, though, often think that they’re cleverer than they are. As a result, they will write their bet in a way that means that they can claim it was a bet on something else if their wager doesn’t pan out the way that they were hoping.
Imagine a bettor who has placed a bet on a horse race and written down the number ‘2’ rather than the name of the horse that they’re betting on. They will often write it in such a way so as to make you think that it might be a 7. That way, if the number two horses doesn’t win but the number seven does, they can return with their betting slip and pretend that it was the number seven that they were betting on all along. This way of treating you like an idiot is an attempt to con money out of you for a losing bet, which you need to be mindful of.
Main Things You’ll Need To Carry Out
Depending on the role that you’ve been given in the shop, there are certain things that you’ll need to do on a regular basis. One of the chief things that people will do when it comes to placing a bet in person is use a pen and betting slip to place their bets.
With this in mind, you’ll need to ensure that there are plenty of pens on offer and enough betting slips to ensure that the customers can do exactly what they need to do at the bookies. Similarly, you might need to work hard to put adverts and other materials up on the walls.
This can be anything from adverts through to information about the events that are taking place in the day. When big events come around, from the World Cup through to the Grand National via the FA Cup final or the Cheltenham Festival, there will usually be a need to put up stats and other info about them that punters can read and use to help them formulate their ideas of what it is that they want to be placing their bets on. Even something like the names of the horses in the big races is key to be placed on the wall.
Keeping The Shop In Order
It is common for all members of staff to work together in order to keep the shop in tip top condition. The cleaner is tasked with keeping it in a good state, for example, but it might well be the role of the manager to do what they can in order to ensure that they machines that are on offer in the betting shop are working properly.
Even with the cap that was put in place on Fixed Odds Betting Machines, they remain big business for betting shops with physical premises, so they need to be serviced on a regular basis and fixed when they break.
There are all sorts of different things that those working in a betting shop need to work together to keep them ticking over. From filling up the pens and betting slips through to making sure that there is coffee or tea available for punters, the jobs are never ending for those that choose to work in betting shops as their vocation.
Even instructing bettors how to use the gaming machines if they don’t already know how they work is the sort of thing that would come under the jurisdiction of the betting shop employee at various times.
The Less Pleasant Side Of The Business
Though cashiers and other betting shop employees are not allowed to tell customers what it is that they should be doing with their money, there are certain responsibilities that fall on the workers in betting shops. This includes reporting instances where the person at the shop shows indications of being a problem gambler.
This can involve banning them from being able to place any bets, including dealing with the confrontation that accompanies such a decision, given that the person concerned will be angry at being told they can’t bet.
Similarly, punters can become abusive for all sorts of reasons. Many of the people in the betting shop will be placing money that they either can’t afford to lose or else should not have been gambling with in the first place. If they lose their bet, they can then also lose their temper and take it out on the other people in the shop. This is the sort of thing that management and others working in a betting shop will have to deal with in a calm, constructive and helpful manner whilst remaining safe as they carry out their duty.