A married couple took almost £47,000 in cash to back every dog at a greyhound track but what they thought to be a foolproof strategy turned out to have a crucial flaw. The pair, in their 50s, were hoping to scoop a British record breaking greyhound jackpot of £101,110.39p at Sheffield’s Owlerton Stadium. They travelled hundreds of miles from the south coast of England with their stake money and what they believed to be a fail-safe plan.
The unnamed punters placed £46,656 in bets to cover every possible placing of six dogs in six races, using cash they brought in a Tesco carrier bag. But the couple had not bargained on two other ticketholders backing all six winners and the jackpot being split three ways. It meant that their share of £33,703.46 left them with a net loss of around £13,000.
John Gilburn, Owlerton’s managing director, said: “The couple arrived at the track before racing saying they wanted to play all the permutations on the jackpot and produced a Tesco carrier bag stuffed full of money. ”We took them into the cash room and it took us an hour to complete the count. I don’t know if they were part of a syndicate or what, but when they came for their money they were very, very philosophical about the situation.”
Use of Derren Brown’s system FAIL.
Perhaps I’m simply over-tired, sitting here, as I am – at 2am, eating plastic Risotto from a microwavable pouch – but I just laughed hysterically at that headline.
You didn’t even need the rest of the article, after that!
HAHAHAHAHA!
Well I do try. I’m half way through a weight watchers chocolate fudge pudding too.
Oooooo chocolate fudge :O
Can I have a bite? Or two? Or two hundred? ^-^
A similar thing happened in the early days of the National Lottery. A consortium purchased most combinations of numbers, hoping that all the prizes would easily pay for the outlay. Unfortunately the numbers that week saw about 30 winners of the jackpot, with the consortium losing heavily.
That’s tragic – Nice try. I walked into a bookies once, and was drawn to the board and a dog race with a dog running called Broken Wind. I burst out laughing, and had to place a bet on it, so I did, and it won.
Hm .. it’s 11.30 AM here and I see a lot of weird times up there …. I just checked the tv guide and yes, it is July 19 indeed today.
Ah .. it’s too surreal … the times you are on the internet. I think you need electroschock treatment!
Wow .. that’s a loss … unless it was not their money … why would you want to bring that in cash, aren’t there other ways for these amounts at the race track?? If not, then I know if I’d been a criminal what I’d been planning … on the road to the track …. Fake police officer needing to check cars …
I’d feel pretty criminal already when I would come in there with a BAG with that load of money …and apparently all in small coupons … weird …. They stocked it underneath their bed and did not pay tax (although the amount is not that high .. here you would not need to pay tax over such amount yet if I recall correct (I’m planning to stock it all on my property if I winn the lottery …. )
Very very philosophical …. like … shit happens?! Or more like … my .. my … what are the odds … the holy threesome …
Wouldn’t work anyway on the lottery. The prize fund is 50p from every £1 ticket, so there’s no way to get more than a 50% return without a rollover — when there’ll be loads of other players to compete with. If you buy enough tickets to dwarf the other players then you’ll dwarf the rollover effects as well.
Similar greyhound syndicates were operating at Shelbourne Park in Ireland on six race jackpots. To ensure this practice doesn’t take place, the jackpot has now been increased to seven races meaning the initial outlay has been increased six fold. Therefore, if you were investing a £47,000 stake that would now be increased to £282,000 a total that the jackpot itself is highly unlikely ever to be reached.
@ Matthew ….Just goes to show that the National Lottery has got nothing to do with ‘luck’ at all.
Ow-ohw-o-o-Ow….
ahahaha
gutted!
Andrew, your theory would be correct if you were the ONLY people playing the lottery. If 10,000,000 other people each put a £1 stake on and all of them lose then their 50p in the £1 also goes towards the jackpot fund. What makes the lottery (almost) impossible is the number of different permutations you’d have to cover to guarantee winning – 13 983 816 different combos. So from your stake of 13,983,816, £6,991,908 goes to the prize fund. If other people spend the same amount IN TOTAL and all lose then the prize fund breaks even to your original stake. Though of course there are hundreds of smaller prizes to come out of that. But it does disprove your theory that there’s no way to get back your original stake – you can, but it relies on virtually everyone else losing.