We need the nanny state to stop gambling ruining men’s lives

My own relationship with the gambling industry is almost entirely framed by horse-racing. If I’m at a race, I’ll put a couple of quid each way on a horse I like the look of with a bookie. If I’m absent from the event, I’ll go for an Irish trainer and a name I like. My family had a weakness for betting on races; my grandmother spent happy hours studying form, and my grandfather had his own stool in the betting shop. As an activity, this does have the possibility you can lose your shirt – and lots of people did and do. But it’s a world – a whole world – away from contemporary joyless gambling on fixed-odds betting terminals, where the scope for human skill and insight is precisely zero. You can never, ever, beat the system.

Have you read that brilliant, world-view changing book by Matthew Crawford, The World Beyond your Head? You should.