ABSTRACT
Betting shops were set up as a direct result of the 1960 Betting and Gaming Act, and since then they have been the subject of controversy over the extent to which they have increased off-course betting. The fact of increase is assumed, and the evidence, albeit distinctly impressionistic, tends to support the assumption. Reliable turnover figures have only been available from 1967 through the regularization of Customs and Excise data. The demand for betting shop licences far exceeded expectation, rising from an initial 8,802 in 1961 to a ‘plateau’ of 15–16,000 in 1964–8, the increase being checked finally by the trend towards the elimination of the smaller shop (see Appendix 3). While no real data exist to compare the pre-Act and post-Act situations, it is believed that this mushroom growth of licensed betting offices was much more than the rapid legalization of previously undisclosed business. The trade itself, moreover, confirmed these impressions. William Hill (then Britain’s self-styled ‘largest bookmaker’) asserted that there was a vast increase in off-course betting in terms of both clients and turnover, as a result of licensing. Using his lay-off business as an indicator, he asserted a fourfold increase had taken place in the space of a few years. 1
