“Tote Clubs”, Dog Tracks and Irish Sweepstake: Controversy and Compromise Over Popular Gambling in Interwar Britain
In Britain, paying upfront to place a bet on a horserace, or any other sporting event, was illegal until 1961. Although it lasted more than a century, this prohibition, frequently condemned as socially discriminatory, proved rapidly unenforceable. Large-scale networks of underground betting prospere...
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Language: | Anglais |
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Angles
2020
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| Online Access: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| id |
openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_1278 |
|---|---|
| record_format |
openedition |
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OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
Royaume-Uni loteries paris sport Irish Sweepstake tote clubs courses de lévriers United Kingdom lotteries betting sports Irish Sweepstake tote clubs greyhound racing |
| spellingShingle |
Royaume-Uni loteries paris sport Irish Sweepstake tote clubs courses de lévriers United Kingdom lotteries betting sports Irish Sweepstake tote clubs greyhound racing Roudaut, Emmanuel “Tote Clubs”, Dog Tracks and Irish Sweepstake: Controversy and Compromise Over Popular Gambling in Interwar Britain |
| description |
In Britain, paying upfront to place a bet on a horserace, or any other sporting event, was illegal until 1961. Although it lasted more than a century, this prohibition, frequently condemned as socially discriminatory, proved rapidly unenforceable. Large-scale networks of underground betting prospered, with attendant police corruption. The uneasy balance achieved by the combination of repression and implicit arrangements between lawbreakers and law enforcers was seriously disrupted by three simultaneous developments during the 1930s. The rapid growth of commercial greyhound racing and football pools, combined with the launching of an Irish lottery based on British horsing racing, was highly controversial and led to a tightening of betting laws in 1934. However, the very premises of prohibition were openly questioned during the parliamentary debate, in a context of economic depression and universal suffrage. Dissent came from both sides of the House and was extensively covered by the press. Moreover, some sections of the betting industry had improved their public image and increased their economic and political leverage, which enabled them to obtain significant concessions. Antigambling groups, once so influential, were now put on the defensive, although their moral concerns could occasionally converge with the economic interests of some sport-betting entrepreneurs. Thus, the rejection of a national lottery cleared the way for the expansion of football pools, which facilitated the continuation of the ban for another sixty years by providing a viable commercial alternative. Ostensibly, the compromise of the 1930s was the last great victory of anti-gambling agitation in Britain, but it dented a fragile and ambivalent status quo and sowed the seeds of the liberalising laws of the late twentieth century. |
| author |
Roudaut, Emmanuel |
| author_facet |
Roudaut, Emmanuel |
| author_sort |
Roudaut, Emmanuel |
| title |
“Tote Clubs”, Dog Tracks and Irish Sweepstake: Controversy and Compromise Over Popular Gambling in Interwar Britain |
| title_short |
“Tote Clubs”, Dog Tracks and Irish Sweepstake: Controversy and Compromise Over Popular Gambling in Interwar Britain |
| title_full |
“Tote Clubs”, Dog Tracks and Irish Sweepstake: Controversy and Compromise Over Popular Gambling in Interwar Britain |
| title_fullStr |
“Tote Clubs”, Dog Tracks and Irish Sweepstake: Controversy and Compromise Over Popular Gambling in Interwar Britain |
| title_full_unstemmed |
“Tote Clubs”, Dog Tracks and Irish Sweepstake: Controversy and Compromise Over Popular Gambling in Interwar Britain |
| title_sort |
“tote clubs”, dog tracks and irish sweepstake: controversy and compromise over popular gambling in interwar britain |
| publisher |
Angles |
| publishDate |
2020 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.1278 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/angles/1278 |
| _version_ |
1877293947943911424 |
| spelling |
openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_1278 https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.1278 urn:doi:10.4000/angles.1278 en https://journals.openedition.org/angles/1278 2020-07-16T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/9mzq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ “Tote Clubs”, Dog Tracks and Irish Sweepstake: Controversy and Compromise Over Popular Gambling in Interwar Britain Angles Société des Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2274-2042 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles Roudaut, Emmanuel Royaume-Uni loteries paris sport Irish Sweepstake tote clubs courses de lévriers United Kingdom lotteries betting sports Irish Sweepstake tote clubs greyhound racing In Britain, paying upfront to place a bet on a horserace, or any other sporting event, was illegal until 1961. Although it lasted more than a century, this prohibition, frequently condemned as socially discriminatory, proved rapidly unenforceable. Large-scale networks of underground betting prospered, with attendant police corruption. The uneasy balance achieved by the combination of repression and implicit arrangements between lawbreakers and law enforcers was seriously disrupted by three simultaneous developments during the 1930s. The rapid growth of commercial greyhound racing and football pools, combined with the launching of an Irish lottery based on British horsing racing, was highly controversial and led to a tightening of betting laws in 1934. However, the very premises of prohibition were openly questioned during the parliamentary debate, in a context of economic depression and universal suffrage. Dissent came from both sides of the House and was extensively covered by the press. Moreover, some sections of the betting industry had improved their public image and increased their economic and political leverage, which enabled them to obtain significant concessions. Antigambling groups, once so influential, were now put on the defensive, although their moral concerns could occasionally converge with the economic interests of some sport-betting entrepreneurs. Thus, the rejection of a national lottery cleared the way for the expansion of football pools, which facilitated the continuation of the ban for another sixty years by providing a viable commercial alternative. Ostensibly, the compromise of the 1930s was the last great victory of anti-gambling agitation in Britain, but it dented a fragile and ambivalent status quo and sowed the seeds of the liberalising laws of the late twentieth century. Instituée au siècle précédent, la prohibition des formes les plus populaires de paris sportifs perdura jusqu’à la seconde moitié du XXe siècle au Royaume-Uni. Perçue comme une législation de classe, cette prohibition s’avéra rapidement inapplicable. Une économie souterraine se mit en place à grande échelle, au prix d’une forte corruption policière. Cet équilibre instable entre répression et accommodements fut bouleversé par certaines innovations de l’entre-deux-guerres. Le développement simultané des courses de lévriers, des football pools et d’une loterie irlandaise prenant pour support les courses de la saison hippique anglaise suscita de vives polémiques ainsi qu’un durcissement de la législation en 1934. Certains aspects fondamentaux de la prohibition furent toutefois ouvertement remis en cause dans les débats parlementaires de l’époque. Dans un contexte politique transformé par le suffrage universel et la crise économique, ces tensions, qui transcendaient les clivages partisans, trouvèrent un écho sans précédent dans l’opinion et dans la presse. S’y ajoutait le pouvoir accru de certains secteurs de l’industrie du jeu, tant sur le plan économique qu’en matière d’image, ce qui conduisit le gouvernement à faire des concessions sélectives. Les ligues de vertu, dont l’influence avait été déterminante depuis un demi-siècle, se retrouvèrent ainsi sur la défensive, mais les intérêts corporatistes des uns pouvaient converger avec les préoccupations morales des autres. Ainsi, par exemple, l’idée d’une loterie nationale fut écartée jusqu’à la dernière décennie du siècle, mais le maintien de cette interdiction fut facilité par l’existence des football pools, qui remplissaient une fonction analogue dans un cadre purement commercial. Si le compromis des années trente semble constituer la dernière victoire du rigorisme en matière de législation du jeu, il ne fit que remodeler un statu quo ambigu et portait en germe la libéralisation de la fin du siècle. |