It's local derby day II. The mighty Blackpool are playing away at Preston North End, due to kick off in a couple of hours. We won at home earlier in the season and really need the points if we are to avoid one of three relegation slots waiting at the wrong end of the Championship table. To get demoted would be a disaster (obviously) and I'm hoping that April doesn't turn out to be the cruellest month (TS Eliot allusion #1) for the Seasiders.
Give us your money!
We may stay up, we might go down. There are odds, apparently. I'm not a gambling man and consequently don't bet. I don't get the psychology of it. Therefore it concerns me that the betting industry has muscled into the world of football big time and got a grip on the pockets of football fans in the last few years, (Bet Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Bet123, 365, 24x7, 888, Bet Fred, Tom, Dick and Hurry etc).Betting companies have bought the naming rights to football stadia, they are the shirt sponsors of many leading league clubs, and a combination of the internet and mobile phone technology have allowed matchday betting to become pervasive. I'm told it's possible to bet on pretty much anything related to a game: results, half-time and full-time scores, the timing and number of goals, the scorers and assists, number of corners, penalties, red and yellow cards and on and on. I'm sure it opens up the way to corruption, cheating and fixing as well as making it far too easy for people who can ill afford it to lose significant amounts of money. It's insidious and personally I'd ban it from the game. I'd hate for football to become a sport predicated on betting in the way horse-racing so patently is. It ruins lives. It all seems a far remove from that more innocent era of the original football pools.
Of course I realize it's not just a sport-related phenomenon. A lot of the adverts I see on TV these days are for betting 'games', online bingo and casino plays. When a mobile phone can act as a bingo card or worse, a slot machine, then the one-armed bandits can virtually hold the world to ransom. I guess I have a puritan streak, but I'm shocked that this form of gambling can be marketed as entertainment and even as a social activity.
Just when you thought it was safe...
Talking of shocks and social activities, I couldn't resist sharing this image, purporting to be of The Scratcher (alias Margaret Thatcher) doing an impromptu DJing slot for Easter bank holidaymakers on Margate Sands (her dirty fingernails, connecting nothing with nothing, blah blah blah - TS Eliot allusion #2). Whoever it was said she can never be dead enough spoke for me. Infamous woman.By the way, I'm not going in person to the match today. Last year I got hit in the side of the head by a coin thrown by Preston fans. Unacceptable behavior. I'm planning to watch the game live on TV in Blackpool's Number 4 pub, hoping for the best while fearing the worst. Come on you Pool. (I predict a 1-2 score line.)
To check out, here's an acid little poem (in progress)...
Better Luck Next Time (Sucker)Roll up! Roll up! So many plays to choose.No punter is ever refused. So are you in?Roll up! Roll up! What have you got to lose?Your house, your job, your wife and kids,your shirt, your soul, your life. You bet. We win.Thanks for reading, S ;-) Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook
