As light comes through the broken blinds Jospeh brown eyes gradually begin to open Saturday. Sixth form over for the week and the weekend to look forward to. Mum calls Joseph ‘would you like any breakfast’? ‘Ahh perfect’ he thinks ‘egg and bacon sandwich please mum’ a lovely way to start the morning. Joseph heads downstairs to the smell of bacon frying and coffee. Dad is enjoying his breakfast whilst watching the TV. On the Tv is the morning horse racing channel which reviews all the big races for the Saturday meetings. Joseph Is glued and writes down any hints and tips he can get for the day. He enjoys the racing as his uncle used to be a jockey before an injury forced him to retire and his grandad also enjoy the racing. With the family being into it every Jockey and trainer is known and certain horses become favourites of his. He gets the betting slip out and write down four horses for the day in a lucky 15 bet which comes to a cost of fifteen pounds. Once this is written out which careful selected Joseph gets up and has a shower before getting changed and heading to the betting shop.
At the betting shop there is a real buzz and this is a regular Saturday morning for the eighteen year old who is a sports fanatic. The football is also on in the afternoon which is a chance to put a few pound on an accumulator in which you choose a team to win or the match to end in a draw. There’s a lot of shouting happening in the betting shop mainly at TV as they watch outcomes happen. Joseph quietly places his bets and head off back home to watch the days events unfold.
Jospeh returns home and gets a hot cup of tea. He engages with his dad and talks about the races coming up. Neither of them tell each other what they have in the races they have chosen as they see this as a jinx towards each other. The roar goes up from the crowd and the first race is off. Joseph constantly watches the jockeys actions to see what position he is in and how we the horse is travelling. This race is a jumps race and the horse is not jumping well and starts to lose places quickly eventually being pulled up out of the race. Money lost already and only one race is down. The second race is more encouraging the jockey comes with a great looking run on the outside but falls at the last. Some bad language is used and the frustration is beginning to set in. Looking in from a far wouldn’t you think isn’t this meant to be fun? The third race Joseph has the favourite in the races and the champion jockey the horse wins easily and a little more comfort is back in the room as both Joseph and his dad have backed the winner. The final race involves a close battle is which the horses are head to head nose to nose in which shouting at the screen occurs with Jospeh horses losing out by a whisker. Entertainment value but money lost maybe leave it as that? Jospeh is not happy he has lost and head straight back up to the betting shop to try and re coup his loses. He enters with much more force and pushes the door hard hitting another man as he enters. He barley acknowledges what he’s done and head straight to the counter to place another bet this time it’s a dog race as this is the next race going off. Blind backing the dog with no hesitation. The traps fly up and Jospeh dog comes out of the traps slowly and finishes 4th. Fifteen pound was put on that dog so now Jospeh is beginning to get angry and flustered and the football haven’t even started yet. He decides to leave to betting shop which is probably the best thing rather than chasing more loses which could lead to further stress. Joseph heads home a little upset, working part time in the evenings has been wasted on betting. It begins to rain which sums up his day so far.
Returning home the football begins and it’s a good start with four out of the six teams winning early on. The football bet is a lot different to the horse racing bet as the thrill is over a longer period whilst the horse race is over in a couple of minutes. There lots of cheers and heart ache as the matches progress with two teams letting Joseph down so overall for the day he is £30 down as a little return from one of the horse winners. Resign to the fact that’s the days money gone Jospeh try’s to enjoy the evening by watching some TV with his sister Diane. He can’t get his mind off losing the money and heads to bed early to have some peace and quiet. He thinks to himself I will get the money back and begins to look at the runners and riders for following days action.
The next day awakes feeling better and determined to get his money back from the previous day. Joseph puts the TV on and sees you can gamble online. He realises this is much easier than going up to the betting shop in the rain and decides to open a betting account. He starts to look at all the different sports he can bet on and is intrigued how many there are available. He decides to then place a six horse accumulator bet. He hits 50p but realises it’s actually £50 and the bet is placed! What a mistake he thinks and panics but there is no way of going back on the bet. If all were to win it would come to £32,000. What were the chances. Jospeh got angry and decides to go into the garden and start kicking a ball amount, hitting it hard at the wall in anger in what he had done. He heads back in and watches some of the football that’s on TV and enjoys the day not gambling. In the evening Joseph heads up to bed and turns on his betting account on his PC. He logs in and sitting on his balance is £32,463!! Joseph can’t believe it and starts to cry with happiness. What should he do? Should he tell his family? Of course he should but instead decides to keep it a secret. He thinks what if I use some of this money and bet bigger I could make so much money and not have to work? He withdraws some of the money and leaves £10,000 in the account. Jospeh then heads to the bathroom to brush his teeth with the biggest glow anyone would ever see. I thinks to himself how easy was that? He begins to think if he just bets on one horse per day which is a heavy favourite he could make £200/£300 per day and build the money up from there. He should really tell his family but he’s ambition is to make as much as can in a short space of time. He thinks he can buy a house with a little extra money and begins to plan his bets for the next day. Exciting time’s ahead for Jospeh with just his first online bet he has made a yearly salary to some people. Jospeh heads to bed with his adrenaline pumping! He also has started to talk to a girl online who he’s really likes and to him everything is heading in the right direction.
