There are numerous different betting companies out there that have high street shops as part of their brand. These tend to be the more traditional bookmakers, so the likes of Ladbrokes, Coral and Paddy Power.
Anyone that has ever enjoyed a degree of success with their online betting will know that companies tend to move relatively quickly to limit their accounts in order to stop them from winning too much too regularly. Whilst this practice seems deeply unfair and is understandably hated by punters, it is legal and allowed.
The question is, can such companies that have high street shops also stop you from placing bets in person? The answer, unsurprisingly, is slightly complicated.
Whilst it is theoretically possible for you to find that you are blocked from placing wagers in shops that know who you are, there is nothing to stop you from placing a bet with cash in such a shop. That is because your face alone is not going to be shared between locations, unless you have chosen to be self-excluded from being able to place bets in betting shops around the country.
Betting Restrictions
Just in case you’re unaware, it is worth taking a moment to explain how and why bookmakers move to limit the accounts of successful punters.
Bookies are, you’re likely to be aware, designed to make as much profit as possible. Whilst the saying ‘you never see a poor bookmaker’ isn’t quite true, it does, like with ‘the House always wins’, speak to the nature of gambling and the manner in which it is set up specifically for one party to make a profit. That party isn’t you, which is why, if you enjoy some success, your account will soon be limited.
This can take numerous forms, including a restriction on the amount of money that you can deposit into your account, a limit on how much money you can stake on certain odds or even a limit on the amount that you’re able to win. Regardless, the situation exists that you can find that your betting account with a certain company is limited simply by virtue of having won a number of bets and ruffled the feather of the betting company that you spend time working with. You can go to a different company, but they’ll soon follow suit if your success continues.
Using Physical Betting Shops
The good news with the likes of Paddy Power, Coral and Ladbrokes is that they all tend to have physical betting shops up and down the country. This means that you can head into them in person in order to place a bet without the restrictions that are in place on your online account having any impact on what you’re doing.
Whilst there is a slight chance that something might be flagged up on the system if you attempt to place bets using a debit card that you have registered to your online account, there is nothing to stop you betting with cash.
This means that whatever restrictions are in place against you online can be circumnavigated by paying for your bets in cash by you, if you physically head to a shop to place them. If you’re determined to place a bet on a given topic or event, you can do exactly that even if your chosen bookie online won’t let you wager more than a couple of quid.
That is good news for those punters that have been so successful online, or have won so regularly, that their bookmaker of choice has done something that doesn’t feel right to many of us.
Things To Think About
Of course, just because you can place a bet in theory doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to in practice. If you have a store card that is linked to your online account, which many people do have thanks to the various perks and useful things that you can get by linking one, then you won’t be able to use this to place your bets if your online account has been restricted.
In essence, you want to avoid any situation whereby the people in store can discover that you’ve got a restricted account online, which they’ll soon find out if you use said card.
It is theoretically possible that they’ll be able to find out that your account is restricted if you use a debit card that is linked to your online account too. Whilst this is much less likely, anything that can be linked to the betting account that has been restricted runs a risk of seeing you get caught out.
This is because the technology exists nowadays to see that certain things are linked, which will obviously cause you problems if someone working in a betting shop sees a notification to say that you’re restricted in any way, shape or form.
Why Betting In Person Might Not Work
It isn’t just bookmakers that can put restrictions in place on your betting accounts online. You have the ability to self-exclude from placing bets, should you feel as though your wagering has gotten out of hand. This might mean that a betting shop knows who you are and will be unwilling to accept your bets for your own good.
Equally, if a betting shop manager knows who you are for some reason and has banned you in the past, you might struggle to persuade them that actually you should be allowed to place bets now.
The other thing to think about is that betting shops tend to have worse odds than online companies do. There are numerous different reasons for this, up to and including the fact physical shops have much greater overheads than online betting sites tend to have.
Whilst you will no doubt be pleased that you can place a bet when you’ve been restricted from doing so online, you need to be aware that there are certain sacrifices that you’re making in order to be able to do as much, which includes taking worse odds and therefore getting less if you win.