Burns Bookmakers

Ever since I got interested in horse racing and betting in the 1970s (and I'm sure long before that too) there have been a succession of independent bookmakers, all making concessionary offers which seemed too good to be true, betting to unsustainably tight margins - especially considering that 99% of their early adopters would be the shrewdies who inhabit forums like this one - and they all go belly up, usually taking wedges of client funds with them.

Betting exchanges have taken it upon themselves to place all client funds in separate Clients Accounts and I've lobbied the department for Culture, Media And Sport to make it a statutory requirement for bookmakers to do likewise, and also to deposit a ''float'' large enough to pay out on any bet they stand at all times.

It won't stop determined fraudsters who abuse card information, but at least it might act as some sort of a deterrant.

If a business pays its bills on time and has no creditors and, in any event, keeps client funds in a separate ringfenced Clients Account from the Business Account it keeps the funding it uses to pay its overheads then, if it runs out of funding before there is sufficient revenue coming in to pay those overheads - ie for the business to break even or move into profit - it can cease trading in a dignified manner and return all account holders' stakes.

hey ian,

any news on B&L?

axl

Axl,

The techies tell me they're so close it's frightening.

They've got one bug to fix, plus a final optimisation of the software and hardware configuration.

I'm told that translates into a couple of weeks' work, but then the same sources told me in April 2002 that the site would be built in eight weeks, so I won't be holding my breath!

ian,

excellent news. (i thought you'd given up on the idea ). look forward to seeing the finish article ...

axl