The system Harry Ogden invented on Newmarket Heath in the 1790s has endured but the industry it spawned is eating itselfThe worlds first bookmaker, so the story goes, was a man called Harry Ogden. One afternoon in the early 1790s, when organised thoroughbred racing was already almost a century old, Ogden went to Newmarket races and did something no one in the business of taking bets had ever done before. He chalked up odds about every runner on the card. In doing so, he immediately became the only proper bookie on the planet.He was not the only one for long. Until then the standard offer for punters had been a binary choice between the favourite and the field. The simple...
A deeper understanding of betting is essential if any future Labour government is to make a better fist of gambling regulation than the last oneTom Watson, the deputy leader of the Labour party and a politician with a long-standing interest in the regulation of gambling, offered some hints of what might be in a new Gambling Act if or when his party returns to power in a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research on Thursday morning.Watson was a prominent figure in the long-running and ultimately successful campaign to reduce the maximum stake on betting shop gaming machines (FOBTs) from £100 to £2. Related: Tom Watson calls for crackdown on in-game gambling Newbury 1.45 Crystal Lad 2.20 Christopher Wood 2.50 Awake...
A survey analysed by Justice For Punters offers one of the few data-based insights into extent of the issueOne of the more vexed questions in modern betting concerns how often bookmakers are willing to restrict winning customers or close down their accounts altogether. Anecdotal evidence suggests this is happening more and more often, to the point that you often hear punters complaining that firms are trying to make it impossible to be a long-term winner, while betting companies insist that only a tiny percentage of punters are affected. Related: Unregulated Asian betting exchanges a threat to British racing, warns BHA Plumpton 12.25 Brandon Castle 12.55 OK Corral 1.30 Mr Pumblechook 2.00 The Tin Miner 2.35 Seaweed 3.05 Chivers 3.35 Simply LovelehFfos...
The new whistle-to-whistle blackout on gambling adverts excludes horse racing and should work in the sport’s favourIt is not often that bookmakers give in to pressure from anti-gambling groups without being forced to, so Thursday’s news that the biggest names in online betting will soon introduce a whistle-to-whistle ban on television advertising around sporting events is a collector’s item. Ray Winstone’s loss, many will feel, is the armchair fan’s gain.The market leaders in online gambling, including Bet365, SkyBet and Paddy Power Betfair, are all signed up to the voluntary ban, from which TV coverage of horse racing will be exempt. So, too, are the firms with big retail estates, such as Ladbrokes, Coral and William Hill, who may – perhaps...
A one-hour lesson would arm youngsters in Britain for what has become the wildest gambling regime this side of Las VegasTwo stories over the past few days can only have reinforced the view of some – perhaps many – sports fans that the UK’s gambling industry is out of control. First came the news Bet365, the country’s biggest online bookmaker, boosted its profits by a third in 2017 to £682m, with “in-play” betting accounting for 77% of sports revenue over the year, up from 72% in 2016. A day later, the Gambling Commission released a report that suggests the number of British 11- to 16-year-olds classified as “problem” gamblers has quadrupled to more than 50,000 over the past four years.Bet365,...