Over the years, a variety of national troubles have been characterised as the British disease – among them economic stagnation, football hooliganism and nostalgia for empire. But there is a strong case for saying that the real British disease is and always has been gambling. According to the Gambling Commission, 44% of Britons today aged over 16 are gamblers of some kind, with 27% taking part in online gambling. That’s about 30 million gamblers, with the numbers concentrated in the under-50s. The truth is that we are not a nation of shopkeepers but a nation of punters.
The law was last redrawn in Labour’s 2005 Gambling Act.
