28 June 2009

Centrebet vs. ACTTAB for online gambling

| johnboy
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Last week an American friend texted me asking if I could put $40 on the USA to beat Spain in the Confederation Cup (soccer).

The American betting agencies were offering 10/1, he had a good feeling about them, and was in transit so not able to get much money on himself.

I duly pointed my browser at Centrebet where I’ve once before placed a bet (on an election result IIRC).

Sadly I couldn’t remember my password. And their password retrieval system pushed my into an infinite loop needing to reset a temporary password before actually logging in, none of which worked.

No problem, create a new account… Only my credit card is already linked to the old account so they wouldn’t let me use it for the new account.

But hey… they offer BPay for payment! So having BPaid $50 into the new account… I discovered it would take a day to pay in.

OK… ACTTAB have been promoting their online gambling services.

So I started signing up with them. It all seemed to work. I punched in my credit card details, gave them another $50, and discovered that, even though they’d taken my money, before I could place a bet they would snail mail me forms from the organised crime fighting Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) which I would have to fill in and return to them.

Not exactly the instant convenience of the internet is it?

ACTTAB were offering 15/1 odds for the game, much better than the American agencies or Centrebet. But if they want to encourage the extremely casual gamer they really need to make sure they’ve got the same ease of use as the gold standard Centrebet (mind you Centrebet could improve their password retrieval).

I never did get the bet on. The USA won. My $50 would have netted between $600 and $750 if I’d managed it.

I’m $100 in the hole with money stuck in systems I have no great desire to use, I’ll have a go at getting the money back later in the week.

The moral of the story probably is that casual gambling is not a good idea anyway. To be honest outside of a licensed club I’m not even sure where I’d find an ACTTAB shopfront anymore since they knocked down the one in Dickson.

But as a Territory owned Corporation I’d like to see ACTTAB working to streamline their processes, it’s not as if they can’t get the laws changed to suit them.

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Muttsybignuts10:38 pm 28 Jun 09

I wanted to bet on the Melbourne cup last year and signed up on the ACTTAB website straight away. I deposited some cash via my credit card and could bet in a couple of minutes. i only needed to fill out all the paperwork before I could withdraw money ( which I lost anyway).
And, while on the subject of ACTTAB, as a vary rare punter I have found their crew very patient and helpful when I attempt to waste money. I can see the tired resignation in their eyes when I try to bet however they dutifully sort my mess out and wish me luck. Their website might be sh*t however their workers in the branches are great.

Beserk Keyboard Warrior5:45 pm 28 Jun 09

Acttab is a horribly un-user-friendly and thoroughly awful place to bet. They even close their online betting from 11pm-10am so if you’re after a bet on something in the Northern Hemisphere then forget it (and like Johnboy’s bet it will no doubt get up). They’re now run by Centrebet so they can only improve.

Any one of the private Aussie bookmakers (Sportingbet.com.au, Sportsbet.com.au, Centrebet.com, Betchoice.com.au, Luxbet.com.au etc etc) offer a far, far superior service to Acttab and many have attractive sign-up bonuses. In fact I can’t speak lowly enough of Acttab.

Betfair (where you bet against other punters rather than bookies) is great value, though if you’re a novice you might find it a bit confusing.

You can join up with the NSW TAB or the VIC TAB on the internet and start betting straight away. You then have about 2 months to venture out to Queanbeyan to show them your 100 pts of ID.

The website is much better – it doesn’t look like it’s been created by a CIT class project, and you can actually bet on sports using $1 units rather than the $5 min at ACTTAB.

Felix the Cat3:44 pm 28 Jun 09

There’s still an ACTAB @ Dickson, same street but across the road from the motor registry carpark. Basically at the rear of Zefferellis.

There shouldn’t be a problem with changing the laws so that you don’t have to fill out the AUSTRAC paperwork until you’re playing with serious coin.

Sounds like the ACTTAB service is almost as bad as their ads for said service. I had to repeatedly put up with the one “starring” Matt Giteau while watching West Coast/Hawthorn late last night. I’ve seen rocks that could deliver lines better…

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