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Danielle Batist is an experienced freelance journalist, founder of Journopreneur and co-founder of the Constructive Journalism Project. She lived and worked all around the globe and covered global and local stories of poverty, exclusion and injustice. Increasingly, she moved beyond ‘problem-reporting’ to include stories about the solutions she found. She witnessed the birth of the new nation of South Sudan and interviewed the Dalai Lama. She reported for Al Jazeera, BBC and the Guardian and regularly advises independent media organisations on innovation and sustainability. She loves bringing stories to the world and finding the appropriate platforms to do so. The transformation of traditional media fascinates rather than scares her. While both the medium and the message are changing, she believes the need for good storytelling remains.
Gambling It All Away
When I first moved to the UK, I was surprised to see so many gambling shops. Pretty much every high street has several bookmakers, or ‘bookies’ as they are called, which is all perfectly legal. Ironically, pawnbrokers are often found just a couple of doors down, which always leaves me wondering whether punters go in to sell some belongings before hitting the betting places.
It’s a world most of us know very little about so I was fascinated to read this first-hand account from a former gambling shop employee a few years ago.
"One of the first things you’re supposed to do when you get to work is check the diary. I found the following entry from the night before and wasn’t fazed at all: 'Had to call an ambulance yesterday, customer got his ear bitten off.' Welcome to the exciting world of the modern bookmakers."
I was reminded of this story when I read in the news recently that UK gambling debts were at an all-time high. British gamblers lost a record £13.8bn in the year ending September 2016, including an all-time high of £1.82bn on controversial fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs).
It seems like we still need many more stories like Harry’s to fully wake up to the shocking reality that is the world of British bookies.
