As technology advances at breakneck speed, it’s more and more difficult to get one over on the bookies – but that definitely wasn’t the case in Ireland back in 1975 with phone box betting scam going viral
In the 70s, there was no internet and no mobile phones – but there were phone boxes and, it was this low-tech facility that netted Barney Curley £306,000 – an amount which equates to over two million pounds today.
When Irish Eyes Are Smiling The Legendary Phone Box Betting Scam: From religion to racing
Born and bred in County Fermanagh, Barney Curley had ambitions to become a Jesuit Priest – something which he pursued avidly until a bout of TB laid him low for over a year. On recovery, Barney’s career aspirations took an entirely different direction – that of a professional gambler.
Although Barney dabbled with a number of vocations, including cattle farming and managing an Irish showband, his life as a gambler was set when he took a job running a betting shop. During his college years, Barney became friendly with horse rider and jockey siblings, Barry and Ann Brogan and, it was this friendship which started Barney thinking about what would become the most audacious betting coup in the history of horse racing.
A close call
On the 25th of June 1975, a horse named Yellow Sam was to be ridden by Michael Furlong at Bellewstown. Yellow Sam was owned by none other than Barney Curley who, prior to the 25th of June, had spent weeks running the under-handicapped horse on tracks around Ireland ahead of the mainly amateur Bellewstown event.
Barney’s plan was as cunning as it was simple – he sent dozens of his associates to betting shops around the country with between £50 and £300 with sealed instructions to be opened on receipt of a telephone call. Barney knew that the only way that race organizers could communicate race results and betting odds to betting shops across Ireland was by making a telephone call…from the only telephone box in the vicinity.
Armed with this knowledge, Barney simply occupied that phone box, claiming to be on an important call regarding a family member’s health, thus preventing race organizers to make the all important call regarding Yellow Sam’s odds.
Racing legend and philanthropist
Not only did Barney’s coup make racing history, it also made legal history in Ireland as, following his massive win, the country’s betting laws were changed to prevent such an incident ever happening again. Imagine cheating on nowadays totalizators online or available from the bookie, and grossing fortune. Thankfully, casinos and sports betting platforms and companies have more complicated algorithms to count the odds , and it is impossible for someone to take advantage of the hole in the system.
As for Barney Curley, he went on to achieve great success as a racing pundit and horse trainer, as well as working tirelessly to help the poor in Africa. Barney died in 2021 at the age of 82.