Punters are being hit by double blow of checks and restrictions

The Westminster Hall debate was not a waste of time but too much time was wasted.

For just over two and a half hours, one member of parliament after another spoke good sense about why regulating gambling through affordability checks is damaging and self-defeating. 

Minister Stuart Andrew heard a series of impassioned addresses that bordered on pleas and was told in simple terms why affordability checks are wrong pragmatically and in principle, but when he concluded the debate most MPs might have wondered why they had bothered.