If you're in Belfast city centre and you're a bit fed up tagging along and carrying bags for the…read moremissus while she shops, and you enjoy the occasional bet, this could be a nice place for you to pass the time (assuming that, for some reason, you can't pass the time in a nearby hostelry). This bookies is spacious and comfortable. It probably has the most screens of any bookies I've been in, ensuring you miss none of the horse-racing or greyhound racing. Screen after screen lists odds, results, special bets, and shows the racing. There's also a good bit of seating in here, with benches and chairs throughout the shop, and no shortage of newspapers for you to make your selections. This bookies is always busy, being positioned in a place where people going into, and leaving, the city centre can easily access it. There's many a punter in here just killing time until they get summonsed to go to meet the missus and carry the bags of shopping that've been accumulated.

It's a rare time that I would put a bet on, and when I do it's usually using the wonders of modern…read moretechnology. Online just makes life that little bit easier. I called in to this little bookies after a couple of pints (isn't it always the way) to put a bet on the world cup. Now to be perfectly frank my knowledge of the confusingly named 'beautiful game' is lacking, severely and I have no interest at all in league football which is akin to watching paint that's already dried, you don't even get the enjoyment at watching it dry. I stuck a couple of two squid bets on the final outcome of the Slovenia v England game. I didn't win anything but the staff were friendly enough although there was that sense of 'you don't know what you're doing, do you?'

A McLean is a bookies. Not somewhere I'd go very often but upon occasion when there's something…read more big coming up or my customary (always wasted) £10 on Tottenham winning the premier league at the start of the season, I pop in. Like most bookies its dark, looks dated as flip and always has an old guy chilling on a chair he got from somewhere magical that no one else knows about watching endless horse races. The staff seem polite but the drab décor and constant stream of unhappy, newly bankrupt faces leaves the atmosphere a lot to be desired.

This is usually the last stop off for me and my friend Gary if me and him have a particularly big…read morenight out in town and want to waste even more money having a bit of a gamble. There are all sorts of machines and games to play. Gary and I usually spend all of our time and money on roulette and we have done ok some nights in the past. I think I'm pretty much even for all my trips here, which I think isn't bad. There are also some high stakes slots and poker tables. Poker isn't for me but I don't mind the slots. I would just make sure you know what you're doing before you put in some money because it can disappear pretty quickly if you are playing at the highest stakes. A fun night out or fun to play until 3am, just make sure you set a budget or you could wake up with that terrible sinking feeling the next morning.

Fun Time is a gambling shop on the Antrim Road in the North of Belfast. It mainly deals in all…read morethings electronic in the gambling industry. Like many of these places, you walk in and wouldn't be aware that it was anything close to day time outside. There are staff operated booths which give out chance to help you waste away all your money in relative comfort. They also offer free coffee or tea, which is another way to make you forget about little things like food or a life! Might be good for 20minutes or so, but be careful you don't get lost in time and loosing money fast.

Betting is something I have never found myself being particularly skilled at. My distinct lack of…read moreinterest in all things sport may be the reason for my downfall in this regard but on the very rare occasion - after one or two pints of the foaming ale I've opted for a punt. This particular branch of William Hill is more or less identical to the many across the UK and Ireland. I put a bet on a random horse race that was about 10 minutes away from starting when I came in. I tried my best to look as educated in the ways of the betting man but I think I just came across as beleaguered and confused. My whopping £2 bet left me with a £2 hole in my pocket - alas I didn't win a thing, but it was of course the brief, slightly tipsy experience that counted.

I sometimes like to lose money. When I feel like doing that, I do it in a way I know that's almost…read moreguaranteed to leave my pockets lighter than they were before. Betting on Tottenham. This place like many other bookies, has that stench of desperation and old smoke, despite the fact that people couldn't smoke there for years. It looks pretty much the exact same as every other branch of William Hill around the country, they uniformity policy being 2nd to none. The staff are hidden behind their bullet proof glass and think this safe guard gives them leave of their manners and they can be as rude as they like. Thank god I only bet once a blue moon.

One of the three or four main bookmakers here in Belfast. The disgraceful thing about bookmakers is…read morethat it's not a business that everyone can get into. You can't just decide to open up a betting shop, even if you had the money. There's some ridiculous law that you can only get a licence to be a bookmaker if your grandfather or great-grandfather had a bookmaker's licence (or something very similar to that sort of ludicrous type of restriction). That's why I was glad to see the likes of Betfair starting up - bookmakers have had a licence to print money for years, with aspiring entrepreneurs barred from doing so, no matter what their credentials. What ever happened to competition? Anyway, this is a small bookies with not a lot of seating, but they do occasionally have some attractive incentives for punters who enjoy a bet on the football (soccer). For example, they were doing a good offer on bets to predict the first goalscorer of a football match. If you correctly named the first scorer in a match and they scored again, they'd pay you double the odds, and if they scored a third time, you'd get paid treble the odds. Fair enough, the chance of that happening may not be very likely but, in the same way as doing the Lucky 15 in Paddy Power (see my review), even though it's unlikely you might as well do the bet somewhere that will give you a big bonus if the event occurs. The one thing that's annoying in here is that on the day of the Aintree Grand National, you have to do all bets for that race on a docket that's the same as filling in a lottery ticket. Many punters find this irksome.