It was enough to bring a tear to the eye of the hardest cynic. In the midst of all the current disasters it was heart-warming to hear that at least one group is doing its best to spread a little cheer among the population.
Step forward Paddy Power Bookmakers, the friend of the ordinary man or woman.
A spokesman for Paddy Power, called Paddy Power, turned up on Joe Duffy a couple of weeks ago. A disgruntled punter called Seamus had rung in to complain that Paddy Power had closed his account. The reason? He was too successful and was winning too much money. Mr Paddy Power of Paddy Powers explained the reason for pulling the plug. He argued that if one punter was winning too much, then there was less to spread around among the other customers. So, there we are, Paddy Power is having sleepless nights worrying about the little guy who isn’t getting any crumbs from the Paddy Power table. He also said that they could refuse bets if the activity was deemed to be detrimental to Paddy Powers. Well handing out money is probably as detrimental as it gets, so don’t expect to be allowed to walk away with a steady profit from any visits to the bookies.
I’ve as much interest in backing horses as a vegetarian has in a Big Mac, maybe that’s why these gambling stories give me a bit of a laugh. My annual visit to the bookies will be coming up with the Grand National in April, but I’d better not back the winner. That would be two years in a row and would probably end up with a barring order from Paddy Power.
A good news story from the bookies
Shortly after the Joe Duffy interview with Paddy Power of Paddy Powers I did come across a good news story from a local punter. This lucky chap waged €14 with Celtic Bookmakers and walked off with over three thousand Euros. This chain is owned by Ivan Yates, former Fine Gael minister and Newstalk presenter. I’m sure he’s just as reluctant to hand out his cash or dip into his Dail pension to subsidise the business.
I won’t give the name of the lucky punter. I don’t want to get him added to the list of ‘punters the bookies don’t want’, but it’s good to see that it’s still possible to beat the system.
Betting on Ryanair
While conducting my usual extensive research on the gambling industry I came across a statement from Michael O’Leary back in 2005. He announced that he was going to introduce in-flight gambling and computer games on its planes by 2007. He claimed the move could do away with the need to charge air fares.
“Ultimately entertainment will be where the money is,” Mr O’Leary said. “We’ll probably announce a gambling partner [company] in the next two to three months.”
Whatever happened to that idea? I was looking forward to eating my own sandwich on board, knowing that the fella gambling beside me was paying for my flight. C’mon Mick, what’s keepin’ ya, bring it on.
Bring back the beer festival!!!??
I got an invite on Facebook last week to join a group called “Bring back Kilkenny Beer Festival of 1968.” The invite goes on to say that “in the sixties there used to be a beer festival in Kilkenny that attracted crowds of 60 000 people that included a parade and a massive tent in James’s Park where the Oompah German Band came to play and drink themselves silly with half of Ireland.” I remember well the beer festival of 1968. I was doing my Leaving Cert at the time and the strains of the German band carried across the river to our house from James’s Park. It was hard to concentrate on Latin verbs or the thrilling exploits of Peig Sayers and life on the Blasket Islands with all the excitement going on less than half a mile away.
No I don’t think we need to go back to those days, times have moved on. Maybe we should get those head shops that are springing up all over the place to organise a ‘Head Festival.’ I don’t think they’d be too interested in an ‘Oompah German Band’ but you could fence them into James’s Park with a few DJs for a weekend. Then the rest of us could enjoy the town in peace for a few days.
