We are a group of people who are lifelong punters (of course, only since 18 years of age) who have got together to give our time for free and in some cases our money to support this educational and campaigning work. At present ‘Justice for Punters‘ has no income at all, except for what we have personally provided.
Until the last decade all of us were quite happy with our gambling ‘lot’; be it, a hobby at the weekend or to be taken a little more seriously, i.e. an often vain attempt of making a profit (a couple of us did though).
From the mid ‘naughties’ onward this has all changed, primarily because off-course bookmakers now have a policy of ‘lose or restrict’, i.e. they will encourage and accept all bets on areas of gambling where you cannot win (online casinos & fixed odds betting terminals), but on sports betting, where study and hard work may give you a 1% chance of winning they will restrict and close accounts very, very quickly: Sometimes within 3-5 bets. Quite simply; they no longer accept winners, however small, unless you have a ‘convenience’ relationship with them, for whatever reason.
Our group would never have bothered with this website if we had received full support from regulators or others in powerful places when we came across injustices. The fact is, despite a number of organisations who have been appointed to support punters, there is little a punter can do if a bookmaker uses unfair terms and conditions to commit an injustice or deny a service. There is more about these injustices in other areas of the website.
Over the last 6-7 years we have told, both industry bodies and regulators, that unless we get changes in the way punters (consumers) are treated, that we are not going away. They perhaps didn’t believe us, but we’re not. Punters are arguably the most abused consumers in modern society and to be fair most people do not care, but we do, and importantly so should the regulators and all public representatives.
