Five Biggest Bookie Mistakes: Business With Bums, The 'Woman Trap'

Our friends at RealBookies.com have pointed out the top mistakes to avoid as a bookie and we are thrilled to highlight some of them here.

Most of these are obvious, but it’s amazing how many bookies get burned by not following common sense measures.

First, if your would be customer pulls up in a car that appears to have been in more than one wreck, he’s dressed like a slob and appears not to have showered in a few weeks….avoid.

This individual probably can’t afford to pay you when he loses.

Granted, I once knew a guy like this whose family was one of the wealthiest in town.  Every so often the aforementioned could simply be an eccentric that is swimming in money.  More often than not, this won’t be the case.

From RealBookies.com:

If the guys says he can meet you to settle up anytime before midnight because that’s when his shift starts at Shell, keep a close eye on his figure. If he gets more than a few hundred dollars down, you are getting to a situation where he may owe you a couple weeks’ salary. Customers who earn a small income and make small plays ($100 to $200 a game) are worth having.

A player like that will lose several thousand dollars in a year’s time, and, if dealt with correctly, he will also pay several thousand dollars in a year’s time. What he can’t afford to do is lose and pay several thousand dollars in a week.

Second, think like Walmart.  A certain percentage of your customers will not be ideal.  By that, we mean, there will almost always be a handful of folks who don’t pay.

Movie buffs all know that the bookies are rarely profiled without breaking some guy’s knee cap but that’s not the real world. 

If Wal-Mart were to set the hounds loose on every 9-year-old who swiped a Snickers, the profit margin on the candy aisle would increase, but the store itself would soon be closed. The same thing occurs in your business.

Understand going in that you may write $800,000 worth of winners during college basketball season, but you ain’t gonna collect all of that. Wal-Mart figures in losses due to theft, and it seems to do all right every year. You should do the same.

Third, don’t be stupid.

Some examples of plain dumb:

If you have locked your keys in your car and you have six cell phones and 30 Las Vegas schedules in the backseat, you probably don’t want to flag down a policeman and ask him to help you unlock your door. Pay the $40 and wait the hour for a locksmith to come.

If you are in the habit of going to bars or strip clubs, getting drunk, and flashing around stacks of cash, you should start drinking alone. You are setting yourself up for, at best, a robbery, or, much worse, being turned in by a dancer or disc jockey or bartender needing to cut a deal with the police.

Number Four: Don’t be lazy.

If the walls of your office are so thin that you can hear the business conversations of the people next door, odds are they can hear yours. Take a few days to find a more suitable spot, hire some movers, and vacate quickly. Remain anonymous at all costs.

Lastly – and don’t hate us for saying this – avoid women!

They are the root of all evil.

Ways women can cause you trouble as a bookmaker?

• Sometimes a customer’s wife really may find his schedule and phone numbers, but the kind of woman that will ruin your situation won’t threaten the husband first. She will go straight to the police from the outset. This is mostly out of your control. We will label it “had luck.”

• In Toronto, we had two main area codes, 647 and 416. As the 1996 football season began we, of course, got new phone numbers. After about a week of being open, I got a call one night on the office line from a woman saying, “If your customers don’t quit calling my house trying to make bets, I am gonna call the police and give them this number!”

• Under the “hell hath no fury” heading, women who have become ex-wives and ex-girlfriends are prime candidates to bring your operation to the attention of the police. Women are mean, spiteful creatures when they have been wronged and exact unreasonable measures of revenge.

For more helpful hints and a Pay Per Head business offering live in-play wagering starting at $10 per head (active customer) check out RealBookies.com here.

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com