Game On

Now, don’t get me wrong. Wherever you are tomorrow, then join me in raising a glass in Thanksgiving for the fact that the Puritans left England. Enjoy the sheer absurdity of their celebration as champions of religious liberty, and that by Episcopalians such as numerous Presidents, by Irish Catholics such as Joe Biden, and by Scots Presbyterians such as Donald Trump.

Speaking of Trump, in an interesting example of the difference between libertarians and social conservatives, Reform UK voted against the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, but all four stripes of Unionist MP from Northern Ireland voted in favour. Yet there were only four such Reform votes. Nigel Farage was off presenting his programme on GB News. After all, that is what pays him a great deal more.

The proposal to limit online gambling to five pounds per spin does at least allow the debate to be joined. There cannot be a “free” market in general, but not in drugs, or prostitution, or pornography, or unrestricted alcohol, or unrestricted gambling. That is an important part of why there must not be a “free” market in general, which is a political choice, not a law of nature.

Enacting and enforcing laws against drugs, prostitution and pornography, and regulating alcohol, tobacco and gambling, are clear examples of State intervention in, and regulation of, the economy. Radical change would be impossible if the workers, the youth and the poor were in a state of stupefaction, and that baleful situation, which has been contrived in the past, is being contrived again today.

For a start, we need to ban Fixed Odds Betting Terminals, to empower local authorities to limit the number of gambling venues, to insist on the use of that power, to end gambling on television, to end the advertising of gambling other than at venues such as casinos and betting shops, and to ban gambling with credit cards.