21 September 2010
Michael Guerin - "Mick" to his mates before he became a minor celebrity in harness racing circles - has been publicly sacked by the TAB after being found to have been indulging in credit betting.
As the harness racing editor of The New Zealand Herald, Guerin has had the ultimate right of response, blethering defensive bullshit. Guerin rang the Parnell TAB from his apartment nearby, asking for a $1000 [ultimately losing] bet. Some 15 minutes later, he arrived to pay the money to the agent.
Guerin's response is about how silly and backward the TAB is, and noted that the race wasn't actually on for seven hours after the bet was paid for.
Since the TAB will be limiting its response to "No comment", I will respond on their behalf. (Not that I'm even a particular friend of the TAB; more an old enemy of "Miwwion Dollar Mick".)
Guerin has fully admitted knowing the rules, breaking them and being dismissed.
Does he also admit to endangering - and almost certainly wrecking - the TAB's agent's livelihood?
The TAB agent who took the credit bet will have already been dismissed by the TAB. Credit betting is up above paedophilia in TAB circles, and in the past they have unceremoniously dumped a couple of New Zealand's biggest-ever punters and the Auckland Trotting Club, preferring to lose gigantic bets than its position with Internal Affairs and the anti-gambling lobby.
Why did Guerin knowingly put a TAB agent at risk?
For the TAB agent, the extra-large punter is a massive asset. Think about it for a second; you are paid a small percentage of each dollar bet. One punter betting $10,000 a day - and Guerin is obviously in that league if he's slapping a grand on one horse - is paying for 2-300 extra customers based on a fair small punter betting $50 a day.
I have worked in TAB agencies and have seen these massive punters make credit bets.
It hasn't bothered me that people are breaking rules, so it never occurred to me to bleat about it - live and let live, I say, and I can understand why they do; TAB agencies are not a way to riches. They provide a steady, reasonably good living, in return for unsociable long hours. Anyone who has worked in a TAB will tell you the same thing; the punter and the agent both know they're breaking the rules, but they feel the risk is worth it. TABs are a lot less glamorous than the not-glamorous-at-all casino.
Guerin states in his defensive article that the race didn't run for 7 hours and that he had only to walk "25 steps" or some such nonsense to get to the TAB to actually pay for the bet, as though that somehow exonerates him from blame.
What a twat. I've hassled Mick a couple of times about his horse-love affair with the unbelievably over-rated Auckland Reactor (Last in Miracle Mile, failed to gain start in NZ Cup.) but now he is behaving like a spoiled little boy caught with his fingers in the cookie jar.
Harness racing has provided mummy's boy Michael with a glamour lifestyle unapproached by any TAB agent, flying him with pay to many of the world's most pleasant places to watch and write about his hobby.
Not bad work if you can get it!
Michael, if the race was not for seven hours and the apartment is seconds from the TAB, why did you not just wait?
What made you take a bet in that fashion? Big-noting to guests? Just so damned used to credit betting that you don't know how not to any more? (You do know that's what got Bruton, don't you, mate?)
Who cares why, anyway. The admitted time frame is demonstrable proof of your twattiness.
Tell me, Michael. What are you going to do in assisting the agent who is now sans income thanks to your arrogant behaviour?
And a nice little follow-up to the above story.
This e mail was sent by the said Michael Guerin to a member of a racing forum (not me!) who also had the temerity to give Mickey a lashing over his behaviour:
"What you are about to read in no way reflects the views of the NZ Herald. They are personal and unfortunately for you, true.
I'm already making more money than I ever did...offers won't stop flowing in.
Got Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, hot eastern european girlfriends and a $1.4million place in Parnell....
And got player of the year for out rugby team. Off to Sydney this week to meet with three job offerers there and then Vegas for a week in the sun (suite at Bellagio. Comped of course).
Then back for Cox Plate....members stand tickets. Free, of course.
And the worse thing is you know this is all true.
People like me are winners and you are just a sad man whose relationship failed.
Good luck with loneliness and the envy you have for me and my life."
Spelling and grammatical mistakes left in, of course.
(Update 2014 - obviously all those "job offers" came to nothing, with Guerin still a fixture at Alexandra Park)
Copyright © Alan Charman