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28 February 2016

Loaded dice

Online betting has stimulated a huge boom in gambling – and gambling addiction.

By Simon Heffer

Look up “betting” on Google, and the list of links is prefaced by an offer of a £50 free bet for new customers of a business called Betway. Betway’s website proclaims: “Best Odds on 30,000 Markets. Online Betting Specials. Live Streaming & In-Play Betting. Money Back [sic] Specials. Accumulator Betting. Cash Out Betting.”

There are live odds on every sport one can think of and some one cannot. When I visited, the list started with darts, cricket and cycling. Football is there, as is tennis, and something called “eSports”, or computer games. One eventually finds horse racing and greyhounds, golf and motorsport, but also baseball and volleyball. Want to bet on netball, handball, judo or other martial arts? Or on sports of which your uneducated writer has never even heard, such as bandy and pesäpallo? Betway is for you.

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