Shutterstock

If you’re a business owner in a touristy area, covid had to hurt even more than it did for the rest of us. Without tourists, there wouldn’t be much business.

Thankfully, for the business owner in this story, business really picked up after covid, and tourists spent more money than ever.

His business is a betting shop, and he had a level of trust with the tourists that they couple place bets early in the day and come back later to settle up by either collecting their winnings or paying what they owed.

One day, a tourist owed $5000 and left town without paying. Or, at least, he thought he owed $5000.

He was really upset when he found out the truth! Keep reading for the whole story.

Tried to bet and dash, but I took his prize money

I run a small betting shop in a beach town that’s about 500kms from the big city.

Being the first real summer after covid, and that we’re having record temperatures, the town is packed and so is my shop, luckily.

During the afternoon there’s horse racing, so I have a big screen tv against the shop window so patrons can watch the races and come in the shop to place their bets.

Some are year-round customers but these days 80% are tourists, which spend significantly more than any locals.

Here’s some more context about how most customers handle placing their bets and collecting their winnings.

Since it’s hot as balls during the afternoon and locals being very busy with work, they usually come in early and place their bets for the day and come back before closing to collect any cash they may have won during the day.

Others prefer leaving some cash and sending their bets right before each race, which I deduct from the cash they leave.

One of the tourists was placing a bet when my phone chimed and I started copying a bet from a local in the computer, and he asked me if he could do the same so he could stay at the beach instead of coming in.

I said sure, if you leave money you can bet until it runs out, so he left me $2000 (which is about 100 US dollars) and I let him scan my Whatsapp QR code with his phone.

The audio messages sound annoying.

Right from the start he was annoying.

I told him to type the bets so it’s easier for me to copy them, but he kept sending audio messages that were hard to understand because of the wind noise and he’d speak very fast because he was messaging me at the last possible second (the closer you bet before a race, the more accurate is the payout for the horses).

He did this for a few days, coming in early, leaving some cash and coming by closing time to collect his earnings.

He was quite good/lucky so every day he’d get some cash after all racing was done.

He made two mistakes, one good and one bad.

About a week goes by and it happened. After about five races he didn’t win a single one and the money he left ran out.

He sent me a message asking if he could bet on the remaining four races and he’d come by and pay me if he didn’t win any, and I said ok (dumb, I know, it’s a risk I try to avoid but sometimes it’s the price of business).

Of course he didn’t win at all, and was about $5000 in the red by the time the last race was finished.

By closing time, I usually check all bets to make sure I didn’t miss a payout, and one of the guy’s has a big payout (about $12k). I checked and realized I made a mistake because he messaged me in the very last second and it’s not the horse he wanted to bet on. I thought he’d be thrilled when he came back so I put the money aside (7k after deducting his bets) and closed up for the night.

He learned something interesting.

What do you know? The next morning I notice he blocked me from WhatsApp.

One of my regulars comes in and I ask if he’d seen the obnoxious guy and he mentions yesterday was his last day and today was returning home.

I told him what happened and he pulled out his phone, took a pic of the wrong bet with the payout printed on it and thanks him for the tip for me.

Turned out the locals have a WhatsApp group where they comment on about horses and jockeys and stuff and he asked to join.

The guy never got his money.

He put the pic and the thanks on the group chat so everyone caught up to what had happened and started congratulating him, LOL.

After about two minutes he’s blowing up my phone, but of course I was the one who blocked him, and being 500kms away didn’t help him much either.

I used the extra cash to buy a nice mini fridge that I let locals use to keep their drinks cool.

That’s funny! I’m glad he kept the money.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

Exactly!

It wasn’t the smartest idea, that’s for sure.

Someone from Germany weighs in.

I assume this person means serves him right, and I agree!

It really was dumb to let the tourist bet on credit. It was also a big mistake to accidentally bet on the wrong horse, but luckily, it worked in the shop owner’s favor!