THE BAGMAN.

It must have been 20 years since I was last in London but I had always loved the place. Something about cities that have such a historical place in history. I only arrived from the USA yesterday but as I walked London I could feel an enlivement that I have never felt in any other city, and I have visited or lived in most parts of the world.

My name is Tony Charles and I arrived from Vegas where I was fortunate enough to win a considerable sum on the gambling tables, so much actually that I was privately escorted to the airport.

I have been a professional gambler for 30 years, but getting older the strain of competing on a daily basis with men and women 20 years younger was getting to me. I can’t complain mind you. Have had a wonderful run, visited every casino in the world, stayed at the top hotels, and have escorted some of the most beautiful women in the world. I did have a small problem with the police on a larceny matter a few years back, and I did spend a little time inside, but hey we are all human.

This trip was relaxation. I never married, not really feasible in my line of work and had no family. I could please myself as long as the funds held up. This was the reason I was here, a good win would see me comfortable , I could then consider where I would finally settle.

There were not too many changes in London that I could see, a lot more coffee shops and delis but that was world wide. I did notice however that both men and women now dressed in far more colorful clothing than the drab grays, and blacks so prominent previously.

Walking through the West End I was wondering how many Casinos there were now in London , when I saw a sign over a shop window " Betting Shop ". Even in my profession I had never seen or heard of a betting shop, was this particular to the UK ? I crossed the road and entered , wow.

A very large room with about 50 TV cameras all quoting odds on horses, dogs, trotters the lot. About 20 people in the room and about half were women. Glancing at the screens I see they were offering odds on local horses, French and German races and even South Africa and Hong Kong. Things certainly had changed, I had not seen this anywhere else in the world

At one end of the room there was a very wide desk running right across and closing off about 20 percent of the room.

On the other side of the desk sat four what I would call tellers, they took slips from the punters and their money, and issued receipts for the gamble and change.

As a professional gambler, you don’t miss much and what impressed me was the amounts of cash invested. As I watched I calculated approximately 3000 pounds was invested in 10 minutes ; wow, that is about 18000 pounds per hour. If they opened for 10 hours, 180000 pounds for the day, less of course what they paid out. This was a Wednesday, so its safe to say on a Saturday or even Sunday much more money would be held This got me thinking, not about gambling but about stealing. If one could hold up the shop Saturday night before everything was banked, a very tidy windfall may come one’s way.