From Prohibition to Regulation

The policing of illegal betting and bookmaking was a major issue in relations between police and working-class people until 1960, when betting shops were legalized in England and Wales. This ended an attempt to discriminate legally against cash betting away from racecourses, which had reached its height with the Street Betting Act of 1906. This book, a contribution to the sociology and the social history of law-making, traces the rise and fall of the attempt at prohibition. There is also detailed consideration of problems encountered by the police in enforcing anti-gambling laws, and the role of the police and the Home Office in the gradual acceptance of the need for legal reform. Administrative regulation replaced prohibition - the book concludes with consideration of complaints from the bookmaking business about the effects of strict regulatory controls (notably, the alleged re-emergence of a substantial illegal betting market). It is suggested that a new approach to regulation of bookmaking began to emerge in the 1980s.Table of ContentAnti-gambling in late Victorian and Edwardian society; the NAGL's campaign against racecourse bookmaking; the prohibition of street betting; gambling and the NAGL 1906-1919; an alternative to prohibition; policing illegal gambling; Churchill's betting duty; from anti-gambling to compulsive gambling; from prohibition to regulation.