"There's a corner that's like the cycle of poverty – you've got the police station, right next to it you've got the funeral directors, you've got a dirty chicken shop, you've got a bookies, you've got a church, you've got a cash converters.
However, when the real exchanges are made, you meet up, face to face, and the bookie gives you your winnings, or, if you lose, you pay up.
Or you owe money to a bookie because you suffer with a gambling problem.
Some local bookies also use their knowledge of bettors' past wagers to price-discriminate: If your bookie knows you would never bet against a certain team, he might feed you a sucker bet.
BBC London 94.9's Stuart Smith: "When the bookies have you as favourites for relegation, you know it's going to be an uphill struggle.
What made the numbers game so popular for poor folks was that you could play for a penny, if you won you didn't have to pay any income tax and if you didn't have any money to pay or play, your bookie would extend you credit.
If you are a bookie in the New York area and you're gonna give me two touchdowns, I got a couple hundred to spend on the Jaguars.
"If you had said a year ago that the Patriots would win the Super Bowl and the Angels would win the World Series, any bookie would have given you at least 100-to-1 100-to-1 100-to-1
Betting through an app on your smartphone not only eliminates the need to walk to the bookie's, it stops you having to hand over any cash, too.
Just one indication; a week ago InTrade, the online bookie that will let you bet on almost anything, laid the chances of the US reaching a debt ceiling deal at about 80percentt.
