To think that match betting is still gambling

[Firstimer703]

Earlier on, I sat down with my husband and son for a family breakfast. A minute or so in, DH took his phone out and when I said about not having phones at the table (as I thought we agreed), he basis he had to put a bet on. I said I didn't think that was a good reason and he wouldn't be happy if I did it and I didn't think he'd let DS do it in the future. He completely kicked off, shouting at me in front of DS and being very aggressive.

He's been doing match betting which I've asked him not to do from the start. He told me today he's disappointed that I'm not interested and haven't listened when he's tried to explain. When he has to put a bet on during a 10 minute breakfast with his family and the reason is that he'll lose money if he doesn't, it looks like addiction to me! AIBU?

If you are always going to make a profit and there is no risk, then I can’t see HMRC ignoring that loophole for long.

Matched betting has been around for 20 years and HMRC haven't bothered to tax it (how would they do this??) so I wouldn't hold your breath

It would be impossible to tax us on our profits, mainly because profits are the result of 2 bets, not 1. So we would be offsetting losing bets against winning ones.

Which would open up every gambler to say 'oh, it doesn't matter if I lose as much, because I can offset my losses against my tax returns.'

I have spoken to and been on courses run by professional traders, they turn over 100s of 1000's a year in some cases. They don't pay taxes despite being registered as professional gamblers. They have accountants for other areas of their businesses (online training, conferences etc) and HMRC is fully aware of what they do.

There is no way the HMRC is interested in taxing MBing profits as a source of income.

It's not gambling but it does require a degree of concentration so you treating him like a child in front of his children won't help! Probably should've talked about it later eh. Matched betting pays for our holidays so I tend to shut up about it! My husband gave it up temporarily when the wee'uns were small though as it is fairly time consuming.

Obviously all money that comes out of gambling is ultimately money lost by someone else. I have no strong feelings about sports betting, so don't really care about that.

I think of the money matched betting makes as coming out of bookies marketing budgets. They give incentives to lure people in, the matched betters exploit those incentives to get free money. (Well, not completely free, the amount of effort involved means I can't be arsed to do it.)

By being a parasitic consumers of part of the marketing spend, I'd say matched bettors are a drag on the gambling industry. The people who hate the industry should see them as allies.

It’s as time consuming as you want it to be- like everything, the more effort you put in, the more you get out. Once you get the hang of it you can place bets in under a minute.

I’m not sure that you do understand it if you think the sites are ‘dodgy’. Relax and enjoy the extra money it will generate.