Friday 20 December 2013

Rushing towards prohibition

Ed Miliband, a politician who never saw a ban he didn't like, has climbed on board the anti-gambling bandwagon. I've written an article about it for The Spectator...

Ed Miliband’s pledge to crack down on the ‘crack cocaine of gambling’ is a significant moment in the extraordinary moral panic over fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs). Earlier this year, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport found that there was very little data to back up the anecdotal evidence of the anti-FOBT brigade and so decided to commission some research. This process will take 18 months and a decision about stakes and prizes will be made once there is some evidence to study. This eminently reasonable, evidence-based approach has naturally been howled down by the anti-gambling lobby whose campaign has thus far relied on anecdotes and, at best, half-truths.

Do go read the rest...  

1 comment:

John M said...

Red Ed's got it all right you know. He has no fucking idea how to fix the economy so he's focussing on slot machines.

Well done Ed