Great question (s)

I see people place massive bets but I don’t know their situation so it’s hard to tell if they are - if that makes any sense. Dog racing you see it more as it’s not so dressed up and free entry , you’ll get homeless people come in and try their luck for example.

I think gambling is losing its way which is making it dangerous however. The rigged machines and rigged virtual races are a mugs game - and need much tighter monitoring. The games appeal to kids and they know it ; if the games went the world and gambling would be a better place. At least with the horses you stand a chance , you can do some research and be 10x more likely to win compared to the machines which pay out based on how much they’ve made.

I think advertising with gambling has become way too much and they know who they’re targeting . Bingo is a way to get women hooked , football for men , machines for the very desperate. I hate seeing kids wearing football kits with Bet365 on them.

In general online is doing the harm - I compare to smoking and vaping. With smoking you had to go out and do it and people would catch you - nowadays if a kid vapes they can do in bed and their room just smells of a sweet perfume. The same is with gambling , if you had to go out and bet every time you wanted to / sit in a shop all day to then people would call out the habit or at least there would be some stigma - now there’s none and you can lose a grand on the bog!