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This would be like a one-pint limit in pubs
So a gambling review has been launched. At the top of the list is the supposed crack cocaine of the betting shop, the gaming machine. Cutting the maximum stake to £2 from £100 would be madness – like setting a one-pint-per-customer limit in a pub.
The young and vulnerable do need protection. But this must be an evidence-led review relating to the increase or decrease of gambling problems throughout Britain in the last few decades, and a ban on gambling advertising before the 9pm watershed with no exemption would be catastrophic for racing and it would not recover.
While the biggest TV audiences are increasingly concentrated on live sports and premium entertainment – boosting the price of sports rights and related advertising spots – the target audience for watching live racing is the ‘grey’ market of 50-plus, not the young audience.
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