Tommy Cooper - Bankers TV - Tom Stoppard - Masterminds TV - Australian Families of Crime TV - The Sopranos TV - The Hustler 1961 - Back to the Future 1989 - Mobsters TV - James Ellroy - W C Fields - Rome Revealed TV - Damon Runyon - Betty Grable - Jules Verne - Independent online - Britain at the Bookies TV - BluesQ online - Mark Thomas Comedy Product TV - Mitt Romney - The Bet: In the Grip of the Gambling Mafia 2017 - Betting on Zero 2016 - Can You Beat the Bookies TV - Panorama TV - Uncut Gems 2019 - Father Ted TV - Tonight TV - Dispatches TV - Untold: Operation Flagrant Foul 2022 -
I backed a horse today at twenty to one. He came in twenty past four. Tommy Cooper
Synthetic derivatives: one of the biggest bets the world has ever seen. Bankers II: Risking It All, BBC 2013
Life is a gamble at terrible odds – if it was a bet, you wouldn’t take it. Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, 1967
He targeted the richest day in horseracing. And pulled off the biggest betting scam in the history of American sport. Masterminds s1e12: A Day at the Races, truTv 2004
On Breeders’ Cup day 2002 one lucky better beat the odds and became the only winner of the Pick 6 Multi-Million Dollar Jackpot. ibid.
Mastermind Chris Harn had found a way to turn a 1,000,000 to 1 longshot into a $3,000,000 sure thing. ibid.
Armed with a degree in computer programming Chris Harn joins Autotote Systems. ibid.
He now manipulates the system to copy the winning serial numbers on to the test tickets. ibid.
His win turns out to be too big. ibid.
Autotote questions all employees. When Harn fails to explain his presence in the office on Breeder’s Cup Day he is immediately fired. ibid.
Victoria Club Melbourne April 21 1976: Inside the Victoria Club in Queen’s Street Melbourne bookmakers and punters are meeting to pay off bets ... Security guards are delivering millions of dollars in cash. Australian Families of Crime s1e5: Dockers and Death, Nine Network 2010
The Great Bookie Robbery was Australia’s largest single hold-up. ibid.
First in line for his cut – Les Kane – a member of the notorious Painters and Dockers Union whose reign over the Melbourne underground was at its peak in the 1970s. ibid.
I’m rich! Five grand at eight to one. The Sopranos s4e5: Pie-O-My starring James Gandolfini & Lorriane Bracco & Edie Falco & Michael Imperioli & Dominic Chianese & Steven van Zandt & Tony Sirico & Robert Iler et al, Ralph at races, HBO 2002
I don’t make bad bets; seven-five twenty-five that’s it. The Hustler 1961 starring Paul Newman & Jackie Gleason & Piper Laurie & George C Scott & Myron McCormick & Murray Hamilton & Stefan Gierasch et al, Shark to Fast Eddie
Maybe we could place a couple of bets. Back to the Future II 1989 starring Michael J Fox & Christopher Lloyd & Lea Thompson & Thomas F Wilson & James Tolkan & Jeffrey Weissman & Elisabeth Shue & Billy Zane & Charles Fleischer et al, director Robert Zemeckis, Marty
Off-track betting was still illegal. It was a high-stakes racket. Bookmakers would pay as much as twelve-hundred dollars a week for access. Mobsters: Mickey Cohen, 2008
The race-wire broadcast the results to bookmaking runs throughout Los Angeles. So that people could lay bets up to the last moment. It was split-second timing. And Mickey [Cohen] was the king. James Ellroy, author L A Confidential
Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people. W C Fields
Betting is a huge part of the games’ attraction. Rome Revealed: Blood in the Sand, National Geographic
The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that’s the way to bet. Damon Runyon
You’re better off betting on a horse than betting on a man. A horse may not be able to hold you tight, but he doesn’t wanna wander from the stable at night. Betty Grable
Everybody knows that England is the world of betting men, who are of a higher class than mere gamblers: to bet is in the English temperament. Jules Verne
Kirkland Snr struck a bet almost 10 years ago with William Hill that Chris, then starring for South Leicestershire Under-15s, would one day play in goal for England. The bet, contrary to reports, was not £100 but £98.10, which somehow adds to the romance, suggesting that Mr Kirkland just emptied whatever was in his pockets on to the counter.
Yesterday I spoke to Graeme Sharp, the spokesman for William Hill, who told me that in the wake of the Kirkland bonanza he fully expects a rush of proud parents backing little Jimmy to play in the 2015 Rugby World Cup or little Jemima to win a gymnastics medal in the 2016 Olympics. Most bookmakers have thousands of such bets already on their files. Graeme told me that his company stands to lose a million quid if a lad called Freddie Martin-Dye ever wins a Formula One grand prix; Freddie’s father, Philip, was offered 1,000-1 and stuck on £1,000. Independent online article 19th August 2006, Brian Viner: Kirkland proves all bets are on when insight, intuition and inspiration meet
Mark Johnson, who in 1994, with a mate of his, had a 15-team accumulator on the first round of the Uefa Cup.
By the end of the evening, 14 of the results had gone their way, and they needed only Benfica to win to land £15,000. But Benfica had kicked off late and in those days, before the internet and before blanket television coverage, there was no easy way of finding out the score. Mark phoned every national newspaper and even the Portuguese embassy, but no joy. Finally, he remembered that Alfredo, the owner of a restaurant on the Algarve that he’d once been to, was a big Benfica fan. He got the number, and phoned Alfredo who, though somewhat bemused by the call, confirmed that Benfica were 2-0 up in injury time. ibid.
A year ago, a chap called Adrian Hayward asked Paddy Power for a price on Liverpool’s Xabi Alonso scoring a goal during the forthcoming season from inside his own half. He was offered 125-1 and his £200 was turned into £25,000 when Alonso duly scored from improbable range against Luton in the third round of the FA Cup.
‘I watch Liverpool a lot and had seen Alonso try it before,’ he later reported. ‘Also, I’d had a dream about it and just couldn’t get it out of my head.’ ibid.
One business is booming. Online we have become the biggest punters in Europe. From the lottery to the racecourse having a flutter has never been more popular. And it’s the bookies who are making a killing … They’re selling us the thrill of a win. But for some, losing can be devastating. Britain at the Bookies I, BBC 2015
Quite a few of Tony’s customers have been coming here for years. ibid.
‘The price for Manchester United to be relegated?’ … 750/1. ibid. London trading floor
Punters spend more than £7 billion a year betting on sporting events. ibid.
Britain bets more online than any other country in Europe. ibid.
Novelty [betting] man Gary only has eyes for one thing: Strictly Come Dancing. ibid.
Betting shops usually make a profit of over £5,000 a week … These machines are known as fixed odds betting terminals and have only been around since 2002. Now they make up 50% of betting shop profits. ibid.
There are at least 300,000 problem gamblers in the UK. And it’s becoming an issue for the whole industry. ibid.
Roulette accounts for 70% of profits made from Tony’s machines. ibid.
Now he’s married and has a mortgage, Steve’s got more to lose. So he’s opened a second bank account to try and keep his betting under control. Britain at the Bookies II
‘It’s the most absorbing thing you can do, you know. I’ve always found it really compelling, you know.’ ibid. Steve
Making our gambling revolution an issue that divides the country. Britain at the Bookies III
There used to be nineteen dog tracks across London. ibid.
The US Powerball Lottery has its roots in Lotto America back in 1988. Today its jackpot regularly tops the $100million mark. Nevertheless, if you thought 100-1 were long odds for a sports bet you should check out the Powerball jackpot odds of 1 in 146,107,962.00. A number of syndicates have overcome these odds to win prizes up to a whopping $340million but the largest ever individual win came in for Leslie Robbins and Colleen DeVries of Wisconsin, USA. They won $111,240,463.10 the largest ever gambling win for an individual. Still you are 73 times more likely to die falling out of bed than win the Powerball lottery. Be careful as you get up in the morning!! BluesQ online article, Big Winners in the World of Betting
In 1997, Suzanne Henley recorded the biggest win on a slot machine netting a cool $12,510,559.90. Her record however lasted only a year when a man from California hit the Nevada Super Megabucks Jackpot for $14 million in 1998! ibid.