Let's Sack Dave.....

Let’s Sack Dave

There’s a meme that pops up on the Internet from time to time that usually raised a wry smile from yours truly. It features a group of men lolling about or sat around watching a chap working away digging in a hole. They are labelled with various titles while the worker is named, Dave. The caption reads, ‘Due To Cutbacks, We’re Gonna Have to Fire Dave’. Yes, that’s life, the axe swung by those cutting costs rarely swings horizonal’.

Hiring and firing certainly never has been a black and white decision, at least not in the circles I’ve been in. Racing mainly. I’ve mentioned in loads of blogs about the job of a floorman back in the day. For the young or new readers, a floorman was the on-course bookie’s eyes, ears and hedge bettor. He was the one that did the business if there was any money to be put back into the ring. This often gave a lively floorman the opportunity to ‘nick’ himself a few quid. I say ‘nick’ in inverted commas because it wasn’t always seen that way. 

The bookmaker would say that it was the floorman’s job to try and earn out of every bet back and that’s how his wages and occasional bonus were afforded. Some floormen on the other hand thought that it was their perks if they could get a price bigger than the bookie asked for back and cop the difference. So, for example, if the layer asked his man to get a £300 - £100 back as they were lining up and the floorman managed to get £350 - £100 and the horse won, a chap of that mindset would think nothing of sticking the nifty in his skyrocket and certainly not consider that he’d stolen it. The were no victims of course, in his mind anyway, after all everyone was getting a few quid. That was all very good. Or bad, whichever way you look at it, until they got found out. 

Honesty was the qualification for working in the ring so being caught often meant work immediately dried up. Mind you, that depended on how indispensable the workman had become. On one memorable occasion leaving a racecourse, a last-minute decision to have a £300 - £100 hedge bet back had saved the firm from a losing race and ensured they went home winning. Walking out, the bookie asked one of his brethren how he’d got on, his reply, ‘Nothing in it until your man had that £350 - £100 in the hole the last winner and made it a losing day.’ The bookie went puce and turned to his father, knowing that a sacking was in the offing, the wise old dad replied before he could suggest it, ‘No leave it boy, he nicks more for us than he steals off us’. Yes, back then some people could get themselves labelled indispensable despite their evident skimming. 

In other cases, sometimes even the hint that someone might be partial to a pilfer would be enough for a parting of ways. Being too honest was the undoing of one veteran floorman. He was mostly used by Silver Ring bookies, but on that particular day he’d hit the jackpot working with a prestigious front row Torquay outfit. As was his way, the bookie grabbed a generous note from the hod and told his staff to go and buy themselves something to eat. Already confident in his new elevated position the veteran chap mentioned that one of his regular employers was too mean to buy the staff any grub. ‘Blimey, you must be starving by the end of the day’ the bookie sympathetically retorted, with which the floorman replied ‘No, I just nick it from the smash when he’s not looking.’ The bookmaker stared at him and uttered a long drawn out ‘do youuuu’ and a fledgling ‘career’ with that Torquay firm ended that very day, just in case. 

For peace of mind you certainly do have to trust people, though reserve that edge of suspicion. It’s a bit like the new workman that sometimes couldn’t quite handle being left in charge of all that money in the hod and not being able to resist taking just one note. Show anyone that you trust them implicitly and you’re putting impossible temptation the way of the greedy and that way inclined, no matter how much you think you know them because life is still full of surprises and not always nice ones. One of my old bosses used to leave a tenner in the hod after racing. When it came to the next day’s work he’d let the new guy set up the stuff and tidy the hod, if he handed back the tenner he’d got the job or at least passed the first text, if he didn’t, well, that tenner probably saved the bookie a fortune. It’s all about trust in this game. 

Simon Nott 

No Daves were sacked or harmed in this blog! 

DragonBet are an independent family firm, born from the betting ring with an expanding portfolio of pitches across the country. Their aim is to carry over the timeless and old fashioned values of betting on-course into the on-line world. With a healthy appetite for risk and an ethos of putting customer service at the forefront of their operation I'd recommend give them a spin and taking them on. 

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AK Bets - AK Bet were founded by a professional punter Anthony Kaminskas who started his bookmaking business by buying pitches on Irish racecourses where he now has a big presence in betting rings all over the Emerald Isle. Being a smart punter that has taken on and beaten other bookmakers on sports as well as horseracing , he's gathered a top team around him and is confident in the prices that they post. If you are a golf, football, darts, snooker etc punter AK Bets will take you on offering big prices and big limits. Click below for an exclusive sign up deal. 

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