You bet I have

HM Government have avoided prescribing betting limits for FOBTs. Instead there is to be a twelve week phase of gasbaggery, styled consultation. The range of permissible maximum bets is £2 to £50. Faites vos jeux. My bet is that the maximum will be set at £50 which in practice is the maximum anyway since even to bet this sum it has to be signed off by the counter staff. Can you believe that?!

Anyway, I think the betting shop operators will win this one since those with longer memories will recall why betting offices were licensed, namely to avoid illegal betting. Unreasonably limiting FOBT’s will simply cause the addict to take his cash and energies elsewhere.


I this morning bought Ladbrokes Coral (LON:LCL) at 128.80p – or right at the top. But I also think GVC (LON:GVC) will bid once things are clear and I hazard the guess that they are now. A £2 limit would take the stock down to 80p. But £50 leaves some juice for GVC – 150p?

*****

Gordon Brown wishes in his just published autobiography that the “fraudulent bankers” should be imprisoned. The effrontery of the fellow. The lead fraud was Brown himself.

*****

In South Africa last week four white farmers were murdered. Since independence there have been circa 4,000 such murders and, now, the crook Zuma aims to see their land stolen. Whilst a little up the coast on the right hand side Tanzania has seen c. 100 witches murdered this year alone.


Staying on the right side of the African coast Kenyatta has won with 98% of the vote and Odinga has called his side to resistance. On top of which I understand that oath-taking has broken out again. For those unacquainted with Mau Mau, oath-taking means swearing allegiance to a tribe to override the laws of the state and ultimately involves killing.

Black Africa as investment grade material? I don’t think so.