Mystery shopper “spills the beans”

[snorky510238]

By the thread title you are probably thinking why didn’t they use stronger carrier bags etc. Anyway I live in an area that has 5 shops that belong to one of the best known chain of bookmakers. Everybody knows everybody pretty much by sight and my friend manages one of the shops. I called in on Saturday and to my amazement I see a manager from one of the other shops placing bets and playing the FOBTS. When I questioned another friend about this he explained what happened. A mystery shopper had called into his shop and was the only customer present. The manager had asked him to keep an eye on the shop while he popped to the cash point. Of course that was probably enough to land him in deep trouble anyway but because it was reported they had to check the cameras to prove it was true and saw that when the shop was empty he was spending his time playing the FOBTS. He had been there as long as I can remember. As far as I know in these situations they don’t take it any further as long as you agree to walk. It just shows how strong the addiction can be when you are prepared to run a high risk of losing your job just to play FOBTS. Of course the company wouldn’t want this being made public for obvious reasons but over the years I have known so many stories of employees losing their jobs in betting shops because they couldn’t resist temptation in several different formats.

 

[Bloatgoat]

I've seen a few places yes, where an owner would keep track all day of which slots was'nt paying at all, to be finally played at when closed.

It took less then a year to have their licence revoked and their shop closed.

 

[Jono777]

Seen this before also. Last hour or so of the day, staff would be playing the machines in our local arcades back in the day.

Unfair really as although they could still lose, they'd have the advantage of knowing which machines hadn't paid out that day are were more likely to etc.

 

[dunover]

I've seen a few places yes, where an owner would keep track all day of which slots was'nt paying at all, to be finally played at when closed.

It took less then a year to have their licence revoked and their shop closed.

Yep - saw this numerous times.. Fed a low-tech slot waiting for the dump, tubes full and machine 'backing'. Shutting time, streak hadn't come by then. First in next morning, jump back on the machine and surprise surprise! the tubes were nearly empty, machine dead.

 

[Valhalla]

Seen this before also. Last hour or so of the day, staff would be playing the machines in our local arcades back in the day.

Unfair really as although they could still lose, they'd have the advantage of knowing which machines hadn't paid out that day are were more likely to etc.

I realise you commented in February, but I'm only seeing it now.
My local arcade was AWFUL for this. One guy "Kev" used to basically spend his entire shift playing poker machines that he was aware had taken a lot of money in but not paid out. Then his girlfriend started hanging around the place and they'd both be at it - sometimes holding a few machines with a few credits in them

One night I came out of the toilets with my phone camera pointed at them clearly filming while talking "and here we have The Club staff breaking the law..." and that was the end of it. Him and the woman looked at each other, got up and walked back to the booth. I'm not even sure of the legality of it but it worked anyway...

 

[Bloatgoat]

Those people usually are'nt the first. It's just the nature of the business where money is involved people start to get greedy. The shack on which i posted before had a tendency to loan out cash to it's returning customers. Even feed their customers drunk to like the next day ramp up the cash that they lended in the first place.

It's all shit to be honest.