The vast majority of people like to have a flutter every now and then. Even those that don’t bet will often place a wager on the Grand National when it comes around. There is no question that businesses know this and do what they can to take advantage of it, which they achieve by offering us the ability to gamble in the most unlikely of places. Have you ever stopped to think about why, exactly, there are a wealth of slot machines and other such gambling paraphernalia in motorway service stations, as just one possible example?
Who is likely to be so desperate to place a bet that they do so on a slot machine next to a Burger King? It might seem crazy to plenty of us, but they obviously make enough money to mean that the companies responsible for them carry on installing them and maintaining them up and down the country. That is just one example of an unexpected place that you can find yourself able to place a bet, with a host of expected places also worth a mention. In short, if you’re the sort of person that likes to have a flutter, you’ll be able to all over the place.
The Expected Places
The first place to start is by looking at the locations that would expect to be able to gamble. These are, in many ways, very obvious, yet are still worth looking at in order to outline the sort of gambling that you can expect to do within them. Rather than looking at places such as online sites, we’re instead looking specifically at physical locations that you could turn up at and reasonably expect to be able to gamble in one form or another. As with any list, it will be far from exhaustive, but it will give us a good sense of where to go for a flutter.
Casinos
Where else to look at initially than with bricks and mortar casinos? These can be found in cities and towns up and down the country and are one of the original places that people would head to in order to gamble. Long before the days of high street bookmakers, private members clubs would allow people to enter the premises and bet on any number of casino games. Nowadays, the need to be a member has all but disappeared, yet the ability to place bets remains entirely intact. Table games remain the most popular there, too.
That doesn’t mean that you have to play roulette, take part in a game of blackjack or be au fait with pai gow to be able to have a flutter, though. There is barely a casino in the United Kingdom that won’t allow you to get involved with some slot machine action, for example, or even place a bet with an on-site sportsbook if you’re in the right place. If you’re the sort of person that values options then the casino is absolutely the best venue to head to in order to place a bet. After all, there’s a reason their popularity has endured.
Betting Shops
The next place on our list of ‘obvious’ locations to visit if you want to gamble is the betting shop. Though they only hit the British high street in 1961, these grew to become ubiquitous in the decades that followed. Though this number had dropped to 8,320 by March of 2019, they are still popular enough with a lot of punters up and down the country. It goes without saying that one of the key things that you can do at a bookies is place a bet on a sporting event, with the likes of horse racing and football being amongst the most popular.
Bookmakers have worked to branch out over the years, though, especially during the phase when they were able to open more and more shops on the back of the success of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals. They are no longer able to offer £100 per spin stakes, but you can still play on them for the maximum stake of £2 if you fancy. By doing so, you’ll be able to get involved with electronic versions of popular games such as roulette. They might be far from as interesting or fun as the real-life table games at casinos, but they’re not bad imitations.
Bingo Halls
Long gone are the days when bingo halls were the refuse of the purple-rinse brigade. Nowadays, people of all ages get involved with bingo when the games are being played, so heading to a bingo hall is a great idea if you want a fun-filled time with a crowd that is well up for a laugh. You can even get involved with the likes of Bongo’s Bingo, which very much drags bingo into the 21st century. For those that don’t know much about it, it is essentially a cross between bingo and a party, with the bingo being secondary.
Of course, games of bingo don’t actually last all that long, meaning that there’s plenty of time for other forms of gambling in between each one. Consequently, punters can usually find a host of slot machines available for their entertainment when they’re not waiting for the caller to shout out ‘Two Fat Ladies’. The computerised nature of the modern slot means that there are often a wealth of different games to choose from, in addition to the fact that there’s normally an electronic roulette machine or other such option to go for.
Arcades
A trip to Blackpool front will soon let you know that arcades are alive and well in British seaside towns. Whilst many of the games will either have nothing to do with betting, such as air hockey or video games, or be low stakes machines, like penny drops, there are also plenty of more enticing gambling options available. People can pay a decent amount of money to try to win a cuddly toy in a claw crane machine, for example, or to earn enough tokens to be able to swap them for a piece of tat that the arcade is offering.
Arcades also have sections that are limited to adults and feature all of the sorts of games that you would expect to find in the likes of a bingo hall or the casino’s slot machine section. This is where the full-on gambling can take place, with bets wagered on high-risk games. They are limited to adults for exactly that reason, whereas the rest of the arcade allows for gambling but in a much ‘softer’ version. Most people will be much more invested in the penny arcades, weirdly, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t wager big here.
Gaming Venues
The last place to mention in terms of the more expected venues for gambling are gaming venues, run by companies such as Admiral. These are usually found on the high street and essentially offer larger-form version of the adults-only section in arcades. They are very much limited to people over the age of 18, promising slots and electronic versions of casino games, as well as access to online betting. The machines are invariably state-of-the-art, which ensures that they can offer a wide variety of different options.
The majority of such venues sprang up from the seaside arcades of decades before, which gives you an indication of the sort of thing that you can expect within them. You are not likely to be able to place a bet on a sports event here, but if you fancy playing some slot games similar to those that you’d be able to play at an online casino or engage in something like electronic roulette, then you’re looking at the right sort of venue. These are not as good as casinos or bingo halls, but they’ll definitely allow you to enjoy a bet or two.
Unexpected Places
Whilst all of the above very much fit into the category of ‘expected’ places where you’d imagine you’d be dead-set to be able to place a bet, they’re not the only venues around the United Kingdom where you can gamble. For that reason, we’re now going to explore the less likely places that you might just be able to enjoy a flutter from time to time. Some of these might well fall into the ‘oh of course’ category, whilst some of them might just take you by surprise when you see where it is that you can place a bet or enjoy a gamble.
Service Stations
Mentioned elsewhere in this piece, service stations are an unusual place to be able to place a bet. Even so, it has become more and more common for a service station off a motorway to do more than just give you somewhere to top up your petrol, buy some food and pop to the loo. A quick look around the majority of services in the United Kingdom will also present you with a small section that is limited to people aged 18 and over, wherein you can play any number of different casino games to your heart’s content.
The sorts of games available here are similar to those that you’d expect to find in the adults only section of arcades or in gaming venues on the high street. Slot machines make up the majority of the gaming on offer, with the likes of electronic roulette and computerised card games also very popular. Whilst you’re hardly likely to win your fortune in them, they do at least provide most people with the chance to have a flutter whilst they’re waiting for their kids to finish playing on the machines that look like cars or planes.
Pubs and Bars
It goes without saying that many pubs up and down the land have fruit machines that you can play on from time to time. It has also become popular for many of them to have electronic gaming machines that allow a wealth of different bets to be placed. This includes the likes of quiz games that promise big payouts for a minimum initial wager, or slot games akin to the old fruit machine style games. On top of that, you can also play the likes of roulette, making them similar to FOBTs in terms of how they work and what they offer.
One thing that has also grown in popularity at pubs is the poker night. These are often done in order to raise money for charity and have to obey certain rules and regulations to allow them to happen. That doesn’t change anything from your point of view, of course, given that you’re simply bothered about being able to place a bet and have a bit of a gamble. Equally, pubs can do something like host a bingo night and give you the same sort of opportunity, so it’s always worth keeping an eye on what your local is up to.
Airports
It would be untrue to suggest that people often head to the airport to be able to place a bet, but there are more than a few around the place where you can do just that. People flying into Las Vegas, for example, are quickly reminded about what the city is most famous for when they land at McCarran International Airport and are immediately greeted by rows of slot machines. The machines there have paid out million dollar jackpots before now and will do so again, but it’s not the only airport to offer the chance to have a flutter.
There are slot machines sprinkled throughout Heathrow Airport as well as other around the United Kingdom. On top of slot machines, many airports will often have a new sports car sat right in the middle of them that you can try to win, often by doing something like saying where you think the football is on a picture of a match that has had the ball removed from the picture. It is worth remembering that winning on the slots and other games is much more difficult in airports, largely because they offer much lower Return To Player percentages than other venues.
At Home
This one is a bit obvious when you think about it but will often be forgotten by many. The laws on gambling at home are…tricky. On the one hand, you cannot host professional gambling events without having a licence to do so, yet on the other it is not uncommon for people to host the likes of poker nights at home for their friends or family. If you want to host a poker game and keep it on the legal side of proceedings, the first thing that you need to do is not charge anyone any more to take part other than the buy-in.
That is to say, you can absolutely welcome your friends around to play a game of poker and it’s even ok to say that the buy-in is £100, should you wish to. The important thing is that the winner takes home all of the money and that you’re not charging an extra £50 for the ability to buy-in in the first place. Equally, you can’t take a portion of the pot as payment for hosting the game in the first place. Similar rules are in place for other forms of gambling you could do at home, so you can win money from your friends or family but you can’t charge them for the right to play at all.