When I was 14, my father took me to the lottery to encourage me to bet. I thought he was trying to show me that gambling was useless. I bet on a horse named Maloof at 66 to 1 and he won handily. As he handed me the winnable money, my father said, only half jokingly, "I think I just ruined your character." His words proved to be a prophecy, and I always linked every subsequent bet to this win.
British gambling has exploded with the emergence of the Premier League, the retail Internet and smartphones. As Rob Davies says in Jackpot: How Gambling Conquered Britain, the industry has "embedded itself in every aspect of our lives". The UK, he argues, "finds itself in a gambling bind".
Although most betting is illegal in the UK, the country's gamblers lose about £14bn a year, equivalent to four times the GDP of the African nation of Burundi. Betting has come to dominate British sport, especially football, and as Sky Bet's insidious advert puts it: "When you Bet money, you become more important." We have placed bets on almost every human activity: reality TELEVISION, the Eurovision Song Contest, politics, financial markets, even the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict.
Gambling is a disease, perhaps a mental illness, and many people become addicts without knowing it. Gambling apps can be downloaded on almost every device, and for most gamblers, there is little difference between betting and investing. "We don't have any reliable way of measuring the damage that is being done" to the UK, Admits Mr Davies. Gambling-related suicides and confessions of gambling addiction are on the rise in this country. Gambling is evil, but unlike alcohol or drug abuse, gambling victims often do not show any of the tell-all signs associated with their disruptive sexual behavior.
Throughout the history of the British gambling industry, various national legislation has expanded rather than limited the harm caused by gambling. The Gambling Act 2005, for example, has done little to stem the trend towards deregulation, since the government could, after all, raise more taxes through powerful online gambling.
"I can accept that gambling has a place in the culture as a pastime, but the prevalence of gambling advertising in sports, online and on television is shocking," Davis said. He said the government was trying to work with the industry and "put the blame on the gamblers". Patrick Foster was once a talented cricketer, but his life has been ruined by gambling. He became addicted to gambling in college and won big at first, but then the habit went out of control and he ran up huge debts, borrowing or stealing money from everyone he could find. He nearly killed himself in 2018 after a £50,000 horse bet went awry. What a frightening experience it was, enough to make a mad gambler think twice. But when the grand National came to a close, I was still betting 55 to 1 on a racehorse named DORA the Dingo.
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