Or not -
I fell for this scam a while ago - mainly because I'm an idiot, and pants with money.

it sounds all hunky dory, but the betting places and casinos won't let you withdraw the free money - it's only for playing - so you end up actually gambling - which is a gamble...

Bit pants really...
(feedingtimeatthezoo day 1 of his bikini diet started, Sun 10 May 2009, 1:22, 2 replies)

Er, yes it does...
Friday's profit was £200. You're not doing it right.

Yesterday's profit (bit quieter): £70
Today's profit: £85.

Really, you've missed something.

Oh, and if someone does the "Pics or it didn't happen", I've got a massive Excel file with all of my accounts in. I'll happily suitable anonymise it and e-mail if you're really interested.
( shadyron, Sun 10 May 2009, 18:32, closed)

I'm sure you're not an idiot...
But there's no scam here.

If you don't believe me (or Shadyron, or even Pooflake, who also looked at this) - have a look at Moneysavingexpert.com for lots of other guidance and examples - especially a bloke called Donglemouse, who's made just over £50k from this in slightly under 4 years.

Yes, bookies have wagering requirements, but that's the whole point of what you're doing with matched betting - you don't have to worry about this. I'll repeat what I said above, you need to be comfortable with slightly complicated spreadsheets and calculations, and you need to understand how laying bets at betting exchanges works, but once you know what you're doing, it does work and it is easy.

Online casinos - they're another matter entirely, and with casino bagging you've dealing with significant variance, which means you can be up and down thousands in the short term (while being likely to make a profit in the short term. The days of profitable casino bagging are long gone.

Bingo sites - that's where I found the "play money" problem. Although I found that the bigger problem was the mind-numbing boredom and inane chat of the bingo players!

By the way - well done Ron - what's your total now?
( Fireflier La la la la, not listening on, Sun 10 May 2009, 19:55, closed)

Since August
Well, the end of, after you posted your message, just shy of 8 grand.

It's worth mentioning that I did a Bingo place and won the jackpot of about 1100 quid, so that accounts for a proportion of it.
( shadyron, Mon 11 May 2009, 0:33, closed)