Punters...

I watched the second half of the Man United v Chelsea game in a Howden pub. Most of the other guys seemed to be following two games at once: the football on the big TV screen and the progress of their bets on their mobile phones. In 2018, UK gamblers lost £14.5 billion, mostly online, while, in the same year, Denise Coates, the majority shareholder of Bet 365, paid herself an eye-watering salary of £265 million. It’s almost impossible for the online gambling companies to lose. There’s no obvious limit to how much the punters can lose - savings, house, job, wife, family, friends, reputation, own life - but canny gamblers who find a way to beat the odds will quickly find their online accounts terminated.

The gambling companies try to appear responsible - “When the fun stops, stop” - but the fact remains that they target the poor, the ill-educated, the luckless and the hopeless. Gambling is about as close as we can get to a tax on poverty. Their customers are those who, almost by definition, cannot afford to lose, and who are getting poorer with every spin of a wheel and every turn of a card. As for 'fun'... when does it even start?

Summer in Selby...