Robin Oakley

Excessive gambling is dangerous – a flutter on the horses is not

Politicians are right to scrutinise Britain’s betting habits, but they mustn’t be allowed to kill horse-racing

Sorry is allegedly the hardest word to say — so Carolyn Harris, chair of the all-party parliamentary group studying gambling-related harm, scored a significant success recently by extracting apologies from a number of leading gambling-industry executives about the damage caused by their business. Representatives from Paddy Power Betfair, William Hill, Sky Bet and bet365 agreed that their firms hadn’t done enough to tackle problem gambling after Dan Taylor of Flutter Entertainment, Paddy Power Betfair’s parent company, acknowledged: ‘The industry has got things wrong and has caused harm to individuals. We mustn’t forget that.’

It is hard to remember now that we have lottery outlets in almost every newsagent and betting shops in every high street, but until 1960 it was illegal to bet anywhere in Britain except on a racecourse or dog track. Everything especially changed on 1 May 1961 when the first licensed betting shops — famously described by bookmaker John Banks as ‘a licence to print money’ — were opened. Vigorous lobbying by the gambling industry, with the Mirabelle restaurant and the Hyde Park Hotel dining room becoming extensions of the House of Commons canteens, had ensured that the alternative idea of a Tote monopoly was beaten off. The Jockey Club, several of whose politically connected leading members were suspected of being in hock to the bookmakers, had opposed such a monopoly, despite the Tote having effectively been initiated by Winston Churchill’s Racecourse Betting Act of 1928.

Rab Butler, the home secretary who oversaw the introduction of betting shops, was certainly no enthusiast, saying that ‘someone leaving a betting shop should feel like they are leaving a brothel’. His legislation insisted there should be ‘no television, radio, music, dancing or refreshments on the premises’.

Parliament’s interest in racing and betting since has been spasmodic at best.

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