Has online gambling taken the place of local bookies?

[The Buzz]

The Orlando Sentinel wrote a piece last week about how it's getting more and more difficult to find street bookies and they claim the reason is that most people are betting online nowadays.

Cops in Orange and Osceola counties uncovered only enough evidence to make two bookmaking cases over the past 15 years...Orlando Sentinel reporters were not able to find a working bookie in the days before the Finals began.

"They're there but I don't know any," said one former bookie and "degenerate gambler" in Orlando who says he bets now just for fun. "Everybody who bets is pretty much a loser. ... I don't think sports betting is very big in Orlando."

Here's the link to the entire article:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sport...,0,96100.story

[bbonline]

^ Consider the effort of going out, take a drive just to buy for it. We have all the access to play, research for an online gambling games via online. The flexibility of the net is far more efficient nowadays.

[AmCan]

i can't imagine any sports better who is comfortable browsing the net would use a bookie, when they can go online and do it themselves.

If my dad was still around, he'd be in 80s and still calling his bets into a bookie, but i just go to betfair.

i'll bet whatever bookies are left use online sportsbooks to offload some of their action.

[bb1web]

I used to bet heavily against the home town with local bookies and actually get point spreads that overlapped or were close enough I'd tie one way and win the other ...

* hometown bookies that I knew ... bumped the spread but sometimes as much as 2 points or more.

I had made a friend in Vegas who played the part of the internet ... back before it was available. It was a hassle having to send him money to get the bets in and often would have to have the money there waiting because the bump in the spreads didn't come until the day of the game ... sometimes just hours before it went off.

It was a sweet deal. Sometimes you'd win both ways. The worst case scenario .. if i recall correct ... was that you had to pay the juice on one side's losses in certain circumstances.

(its been almost 10 years since I did it. The net eventually put me out of business too ... that and my best bookie who was such an opportunist which is why he'd bump the spreads so much ... came home one day caught his wife in bed with another man and shot them both ... then shot himself in the head. ..... the two lovers lived. - lesson learned ... make sure you finish the job before you shoot yourself eh?)

[NicolasJohnson]

I don't think it has or will replaced local bookies, but definitively online betting has taken a lot of money out of local bookie pockets.

I think this is similar to when TV came out people thought it was the end of radio... not quite, but definitively negatively impacted the popularity of radio.

And wow, that story about the guy who killed him self after shooting his wife and lover... scary to think people you know are capable of that.

[universal4]

I had a neighbor that shot his sister-in-law about 15 years ago. He was hooked on the lottery and was trying to get her to loan him more money to continue playing.

(There is actually a few side stories that go with this which I could tell over a few beers some time....LOL, cops almost shot me that night....twice....LOL)

Bytheway, that was Osceola County.....LOL

No I did NOT know any of those bookmakers personally....LMAO

Rick
Universal4

[JakeBO]

Now days local bookies don't even have to bother to do research, they can subscribe to Price per Head companies and they get full service. Up to certain pont they have also benefit from the online boom.

[Betpartners]

I have just finishedreading a book called You Bet about the rise of Betfair and how it has impacted local bookies.

It has had an effect in the UK apparantly but by all accounts it has now evened out,

The locals have one advantage over online betting and that is the social interaction in meeting people in the flesh and having a chat while betting and that will to a certain extent sustain the local bookies.