Sometimes it seems as though gambling is the last industry in Britain, although the word “industry” is being stretched beyond serviceable limit here, to describe an activity in which people watching television give money to other people watching television. We love betting. We bet on anything: sport, of course, but also the weather, the Booker Prize, Strictly Come Dancing…You name it, and our big bookmakers will offer you odds on it. Any little row of shops anywhere in the country will usually feature a bookie’s: corner shop, butcher’s, newsagent, takeaway, William Hill. There are fewer physical betting shops than there were - under seven thousand in 2022, compared to nine thousand in 2011 - but putting a few quid on something is still a very big part of the UK psyche. Around half the adult population bet on a monthly basis, if one includes the National Lottery. The Queen liked a bet at Royal Ascot, apparently, the horse race she attended every year. And there was once a story in Private Eye about somebody in Clarence House, where the Queen Mother lived, making money off the name of an as yet unnamed royal baby. (Of course you can bet on that too.)
And bookmakers’ odds are quoted by respectable news services constantly as an indication of which way the wind is blowing. A few years ago, the Economist ran an article suggesting that the betting odds were much more reliable than opinion polls: people lie to pollsters, but they don’t lie with their cash. At the moment, the Conservative Party are 125-1 to win the election on July 4th; in other words, if you think the Tories will be re-elected and you stick a tenner on it, you’d be £1250 better off if you’re right. But of course you’d be mad to put ten pence on that outcome, let alone ten pounds, hence the odds. So entrenched is betting in English life that, for as long as I can remember, the flagship BBC radio news show Today has provided racing tips. Just three a day, as part of the sports roundup, but even so, it must seem very strange to outsiders. You listen to the economic news, and then someone tells you how to lose some more of your money.
There are two betting stories in the news this week. The news that Today are from now on only going to offer tips on the big races from now on is the little story, although perhaps an interesting indication that the endorsement of gambling is hardly a morally neutral position. The other is a humdinger.