Gambling in the US is taking a real pummelling - but has the industry learned lessons from what has happened in Britain?

Regular readers of this column will remember that before Christmas the issue of the rapid expansion of sports betting in the US was the subject of a hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, such events can be watched live from this side of the Atlantic, although I dipped into the meeting, entitled 'America's High-Stakes Bet on Legalized Sports Gambling', some time after it had started.

Not being entirely familiar with such proceedings, my experience of Senate hearings being limited to the appearances of George Galloway 20 years ago and Michael Corleone in the Godfather II some time earlier, I thought I had accessed the wrong event as one of the witnesses, National Collegiate Athletic Association president Charlie Baker, was being given a verbal pummelling by two senators on the issue of trans athletes.