Staff at a Betfred betting shop in Manchester called police last week after a punter demanded the return of a £60 tip.
A couple weeks ago, a thirty-something man was in high spirits after legally relieving Betfred of what the Manchester Evening News called a “large amount of money.” Neither the specific amount of the punter’s winnings nor the event on which he wagered was revealed, but the punter felt sufficiently celebratory to share £60 with staff at the Cross Street shop.
Fast-forward to this past Friday and the punter returned to the shop in an entirely different frame of mind. Apparently having endured a run of bad luck, the punter demanded the return of the £60 tip. When staff balked at this request, the punter grew angrier, demanding staff make with the money by 3pm that day while cryptically informing them that they “don’t know who I am.”
Unnerved, the shop manager called the police but the punter amscrayed before the Greater Manchester Police arrived on the scene. Meaning shop staff still don’t know who he is.
Meanwhile, a Coral betting shop in the West Midlands is hoping police will identify three fraudsters who took the company for nearly £3k last month.
The shop’s fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBT) allow punters to print out receipts displaying the balance of their credit on the machine. According to reports, the trio had somehow tampered with the machine so that it would print receipts indicating a remaining credit greater than the actual balance. Over the course of several hours on June 18, the trio reportedly printed out bogus receipts worth £2,955, then redeemed the receipts for cash at other Coral shops.
Frankly, we half suspect the troublesome trio is actually a BBC viral marketing team looking to promote BBC One’s new documentary series Britain at the Bookies, which focuses on the lively goings-on at a Coral shop in West Yorkshire.
