Gambling On God Parents

Betting on the British royal family might have gone too far in the wake of the birth of Princess Charlotte

There is no bigger fan of online gambling than myself. It has revolutionized the accessibility and acceptability of gambling beyond all recognition with constant developments in technology providing ever more innovative ways for the public to interact with their favorite sports and games. Add to this mobile casinos and sports betting apps and the wagering landscape is almost unrecognizable from the seedy environment it inhabited in the UK in the minds of most only a couple of decades ago.

Royal Baby Bets Bad?

• We bet on the name
• We wagered on the weight
• Now gamble on godparents?

Oh certainly there was always the glamorous image of the casino to balance up the squalid image of the corner betting shop, James Bond in his tuxedo a good offset for the guy in an anorak, but on the whole it was never an industry with the best of public images. This all changed with the arrival of the internet and whilst many were slow to see the potential of this modern marvel the people at Bet365 swiftly made the best possible use of it’s many possibilities.

Their introduction of so many markets in such an accessible form was coupled with a campaign of social acceptability build around their sponsorship of football only enhanced by the introduction of live in-game betting. Bringing gambling into people’s living rooms in a form that promoted a safe method of gambling without the stigmas of previous interface points was revolutionary and has spawned a plethora of pretenders to the crown ever since.

Even established names in the world of British bookmaking have had to play catch up with the company set up in a portacabin plonked in a carpart in Stoke-on-Trent that went on to make its owners billionaires. They offer a superlative range of books and markets to suit every sort of gambler, from the latest football the world over to the specialized markets for the speculative, the casual and even the novelty bettor. But sometimes, just sometimes, it all goes a bit too far.

God Parents Perhaps Too Far?

I had thought that it might just be possible to persuade people who like to bet on sports in the UK to forgo backing their favorite team and place a small part of their hard earned cash behind a name for the next member of the royal family, not easy, but possible, and numerous people did. Bookmakers took bets on the name, the time and weight, the works, and when all is said and done that’s probably fair enough, but then they can’t leave well alone and have to become excessive.

Someone will have to explain to me in very, very small words why on earth anyone, anywhere, should be placing a wager on the god parent of a child, royal or otherwise. What’s next? Will we wager on her first words? How many steps she takes first time out of nanny’s grasp? The date and time upon which she first ties her own shoelaces? The parents have asked for the child’s privacy to be respected, but we can wager on who’ll look after her if they die, which given the family history……

Now I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be allowed to bet on quirky novelty events and occurrences, if people wish to gamble on whether the weather will provide a white Christmas or not, that’s really their own affair, if they want to wager on which fool will run the country next, that’s just fine, and if they insist on betting who’ll win the Eurovision Song Contest, I say good luck to them, but putting money on the make up of someone’s family is just a bit cheap, isn’t it?

At this point I suspect some of you will consider the practice all just part and parcel of a golden age Britain, a tradition of sorts, a way of showing support for the Queen and her family gawd bless ’em, and whilst the deference once seen in British society has eroded like an iceberg due to global warming, huge chunks of it falling away over the 20th century and still more of it vanishing as times change and such an old institution has trouble keeping up.

So Much Choice, So Little Time

If the royal family has issues staying current UK gambling laws do not, and whilst I don’t suggest for a moment that a law is passed banning this atrocious frivolity, I do think we could perhaps restrain ourselves from having to actually risk our money on the god parents of Princess Charlotte. There are so many other things on which you can wager, even if you’re not particularly attracted to the world of sports, it’s not all like something out of a casino in Saipan.

Certainly sports are the most attractive betting opportunities for most because of team loyalties perhaps, or a love of the game involved, it can be difficult to resist putting your money where your opinion is at Bet365 or similar, especially when you’ve voiced it so vociferously. It would perhaps be a tad churlish to then spurn the opportunity to feel the double whammy of being both right, and richer as a result of being so. This does not mean there aren’t other options.

Where once going to casino was an experience out of reach of many the provision of casino games by online sites has meant the experience has come to you, even with live dealers on some tables adding to the atmosphere and keeping the game interactive. The early days of clunky graphics and poor interfaces are long since gone and the rate at which modern technology provides ever more capable platforms for gambling accelerates the increase in new features. You can play poker or blackjack right there at home or even spin the roulette wheel.

The world wide reach of these sites means you can bet on just about anything, anywhere, there’s often live video coverage of the event these days and be it horse racing or the winner of Strictly Come Dancing, there will be a book to record your wager and pay your winnings, so why then, in the name of all that’s holy, unholy and outrageously profane, with all these choices is anyone betting on the royal family’s composition?