I asked because I am genuinely interested. I've done it for about a year now and want to know if others do too.

If I were arbing I'd be very interested to know who my competition is as well. From their posts, I get the impression that about 8 or 9 of the current regulars are doing it full-time. And possibly two of them are arbing as well. But that's just a wild guess. I retired from the workforce a bit over 4 years ago myself.

Aussie, I fancied a tree change and wanted to build a house on a block I've got in the countryside. Been to two brokers and they just laugh. Are you sure of your impressions?

A bit more
 

Just to add Aussie, what they said in a nutshell was that if the income wasn't "declared income" then they simply won't consider it.

It's been a while since I have posted here so thought I'd chime in..

I'm still arbing. I started in August 2012 and still going strong. I probably do about 4 hours of scanning per day 7 days a week, mixture of day and night but I find the international races still better.

Last night I did one race then logged off. I made $563 from it and arbed it for about 2 hours straight until it raced. It was Gowran Park, race 2 and it was a quad arb (4, 14, 15, 18) which was perfect as the profits and losses on Betfair offset each other increasing overall profit takings. I still have my trusty bookmakers which I've used for over 12 months with no sign of stopping. I won't be naming them although no doubt many of you would use [some of] them anyway!

I got a new setup a few months ago as my old PC was running slow. This new thing is a beast and does the job very nicely. I also have back up internet in case there's ever a problem. I have a special widescreen laptop too which split screen ability. Once or twice a year i might back and then our internet goes down before being able to lay. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't really make a dent, but it's still annoying.



The main thing i'm trying to do this year is cut down on stupid mistakes. Discipline is definitely the key! The main ones being: backing for place then leaving it too late to lay, then the market suspends. Also, assuming liquidity will come in for the lay (AUS) and getting stuck and trading out for a loss. I would say I lose about $300-$400 a week on average in stupid mistakes so i'm really working on it now. If you multiply that by 48 weeks it's a LOT of lost money.

I've also been using other bigger bookies like Sportsbet for NSW racing which is good. I've spoken to Richard Irvine and a few others and they think other states will bring in similar min bet rules by the end of the year. I doubt it myself but we will see! That would be amazing. On a similar note I haven't noticed any less arbs on NSW races since the new rule. The holy grail for me would be min bets on ALL racing (international mainly), but I can't see that happening either.

Hope all is going well with you guys!

you can get around it a bit but you will need an accountants letter stating your income and you may have to provide bank statements etc.

By an large though if you don't pay tax on it you cant use it to demonstrate your earnings

That's pretty much the clincher for stuffing it up for me Aussie. How I dream of the good old days when just signing a statement that you could afford the finance was all they needed!

The answer is pretty simple to me, you have 2 choices, pay cash or invest in a business, the second option seams a better one and i would have thought the most obvious.

Good work Pat. Hopefully it all continues to improve for you and you don't get any issues with your current bookmakers. I saw your comment on NSW bookies. I assume you are placing your bets via the phone then as most make it hard for you to back online.

yes I've done stacks of them.
they basically finished in about 2008.
1 day ABN and 40% deposit was the requirement
the rate wasn't too bad either.

GFC in the US took care of them.
they had NINJA loans over there for 100% of the value
NO INCOME
NO JOB
NO ASSETS

Funny thing was about 15% of them went bad - which is high - BUT that meant 85% survived for people who would not ordinarily qualify.

so it was good result for society.
cheaper for everyone than housing commission/council flats/the projects.