Phone punters upset with TAB's new $5 minimum

Terry Verrall reckons the TAB's decision to lift its minimum operator-assisted telephone racing bet from $2 to $5 "stinks".

"When you ring up you usually put four or five bets on," he says. "They were getting $12 or $13 off one call anyway."

The 65-year-old Vietnam veteran has had a TAB phone account for 20 years.

Since the betting agency raised the minimum bet from $2 this month, he has used his telephone account just twice.

Last month, he used it 40 or 50 times.

Mr Verrall, who lives in Mt Maunganui, is annoyed he now has to go to the local RSA to place bets.

He has not changed the amount he spends, but does not buy the TAB's explanation that the $2 minimum was losing it money.

The TAB says the increase was necessary because small operator-assisted bets were costing more to provide than they generated.

Gary Hooper, general manager channels, said punters could still place small racing bets using Touchtone phone betting ($2 minimum), internet betting ($1), Skybet television betting ($2), and TAB outlets. The minium sports bet had been $5 since its introduction.

There was also an Earlybird service on operator-assisted betting for bets less than $5 between 10 and 11am.

Mr Hooper said the $3 increase to the minimum was the first change to operator-assisted betting since 1994 and affected only a small number.

It was too soon to tell whether it had affected punter numbers and profits.

Others at Mt Maunganui RSA, the country's largest RSA, expressed mixed emotions about the increase.

"A lot of elderly people can't afford a $5 bet," Shirley Stone said. "It spoils it a lot for those people who don't bet heavily but like to have an interest."

Another man understood the TAB's move, saying the agency was justified in wanting to make a profit.