When on hols on the Gold Coast last year placed 3 $200 win bets on my system selections in the morning at the Broadbeach TAB. Spent the rest of the day at Seaworld, or some other 'world' up there. At 8.01 pm went into the Pub Tab at Broadbeach but didn't have my reading glasses with me to check the results. Asked the lady at the counter if she could scan the tickets to see if any were winners.

She took the tickets, scanned them and politely told me "sorry, no collects" as she placed the dud tickets in a waste bin behind the counter.

I thought little of it, as most of us punters have our losing days, and re-joined our friends at the restaurant. One of my friends had follwed my selections and placed $20 on each. He asked me how they'd fared and a little embarrased (as you would be) I said, sorry all duds!

The story would have ended there, but this friend is a bit of a night owl, and on returning to our motel, he watched the replays of the races we'd bet on.

As I told him our bets all lost, he was waiting for the likes of a Makbye Diva to swamp on one of the selections as it was length's clear with precious little to go before the finishing post.

The selection had won, paying $8.50 the win. Fortunatley, he'd kept his ticket.

The next morning, families in tow, we were all off to another 'world' of some sort. So, I was powerless to do anything until around 3.00pm the next day.

Went back to the Pub TAB where they'd scanned my supposedly 'dud' ticket, and initially they were pretty unhelpful. My $200 ticket was worth $1700, so I was fairly insistent. The supervisor, who turned out very helpful contacted the Brisbane TAB office where after a few questions it was determined that I hadn't made a mistake. There had been three $200 bets the day prior at 10.17am on three horses - and I could name the other two.

But, unfortunately, what I was also told was the 'dud' ticket had already been cashed at Jupiter's Casino TAB at exactly 11.00am when the TAB opened.

So, I was effectively told "tough titties". I had no recourse whatsoever.

Now, I'll never know the 'truth' here. Maybe the operator made a mistake and threw the ticket in the bin. Maybe the cleaners, 'cleaned up'. Maybe the operator thought she'd be able to get away with it..... as she'd well and truly have done if not for my mates insomnia?

But, I've an eye for the detail. When passing the tickets to the operator, the computer screen was pointed her way. I had no way of knowing whether or not the tickets were losers or winners. Simply had to take her word for it.

Seemed like a poor method to me.......likely to put temptation in harms way.

Anyway, they say that 'all's well that ends well'. After that mucking around in the TAB for an hour or so and ending $1700 out of pocket, that night we headed off to the Casino. Nowadays, I don't like Casino's much at all, but I'm a fair blackjack player, know the count etc. I had a $1700 target that night, and on reaching it, was stumps for me......off to the bar I went!!

There's got to be a moral to this story.

Either don't be too keen to find the results, or remember your reading glasses!!

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Bazza's Best