Backing a winner

One has to assume that Adam Edwards (In the Snug, MA last week) always has his well-turned tongue firmly in his cheek when he makes suggestions about what the licensed trade should do to keep in the centre of things.

Take his idea of employing bookies' runners in a bar to fetch and carry customers' betting slips and (occasionally) winnings. In a perfect world, they would be allowed to do so.

Unfortunately, beer and betting mix as well as oil and water - the gaming laws see to that. When I joined the MA years ago, this newspaper was essential daily reading for anyone with an interest in the turf and an eye for a winner. Quite rightly, its tipster - under the nom de plume "Robin Goodfellow" - was avidly followed - he was always up near the top of the Sporting Life naps table.

Whenever I visited a bar back in those days, it was not uncommon to spot the landlord with his pencil poised over the back pages and a gleam in his eye. But he wasn't reading my column - his tips were of a different kind!

Lest nostalgia prevails, I had better issue the usual warning to those running pubs about having a too-close liaison with a local bookmaker. While it is acceptable for one of your regulars to pop round the corner to place bets for himself and his friends, the betting shop coming into the pub is legally frowned-upon.

Someone working for the bookie cannot spend his time collecting betting slips or paying out winnings in the bar - beware of unpleasant repercussions if you see that happening. One south London licensee recently lost his licence for illegal betting transactions. I'm sure he won't be the last.

It is up to you to ensure that whatever newspapers you have available, and whatever track is featured on TV, the actual betting takes place in the correctly-licensed place: the bookmakers. Your customers can write out their slips and even phone their bets over, if they have an account, but nothing more than that - or you may end up in the licensing authority's unsaddling enclosure.