Perhaps the last Labour Party would have been wise to make a 'U' Turn over their gambling free-for-all measures.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....ter-partys-plans.html

At last now they are out of power, they are admitting they made a mistake, even though they were warned at the time.

/// At the time, the Daily Mail led the way in warning Labour about the dangers of its plans for a gambling free-for-all. ///

[jackthehat]

<<Would it not be better if the ''NATIONAL'' Lottery funded or at least helped to fund The National Health Service & instead of 1 person winning millions of pounds it was redesigned so that more people could possibly win 1 million pounds ? >>

There was great care taken so that precise scenario would and could not happen when the National Lottery was inaugurated; so that any subsequent government could not start nibbling away at the NHS budget and using Lottery money to fill the shortfall.

[LazyGun]

Labour, as part of their relaxation of the gambling laws, was all set to introduce super-casinos, as I recall - the first to be situated in Manchester. This the coalition reversed, which I think was the right call.

As to the National Lottery - I am not a massive fan, because such draws are just luck, and the odds are poor. Those who have little spend proportionately more of their income on such lotteries.

I dont know how much the lottery contribute to good causes and sport - we can see the benefit of the money when it comes to the Olympics and Team GB. I dont think we should get into the situation of funding healthcare through the lottery - that lets the government off the hook, bigtime.

The argument about large jackpots vs smaller jackpots but more winners has been had lots of times. Camelot always argued that having large jackpots draws more punters in, and they might well be right, however much I personally would favour a draw offering the opportunity to make more millionaires, rather than a few multi millionaires......

[Mick-Talbot]

AOG, What has your post @ 13:38 got to do with the original thread opener?

[Anngel]

.. do you think the potential to make buckets of money out of tax might have helped the decision making? That along with extending drinking hours has increased tax income considerably. So basically, we are gambling ourselves out of a recession (well some of us are gambling themselves into their own personal recession). Ironic...

[Gromit]

LazyGun

The Manchester Super Casino and others were not ditch by the Coalition. The Labour Government did that in 2008, two years before the Coalition came to power.

http://news.bbc.co.uk..._politics/5298682.stm

[LazyGun]

Gromit

Thanks for the correction - Momentary brain lapse - Should have remembered that the cancellation of the supercasino happened under Mr.Brown.I do remember being very unhappy with the Blair govt, not for th first time, when they followed the line they took with respect to the easing of the gambling laws.

I did have it in mind that the coalition announced something about the gambling laws shortly after they came into power, but perhaps I was mistaken...

[Gromit]

Labour did make a U-Turn. It scrapped its own Super Cadino plans.

Rather than repeal any of Labour's bad gambling laws, the current lot are pushing even further. From your link...

// Two weeks ago the Commons culture, media and sport committee recommended that gambling laws be further relaxed.
MPs said the limit of four FOBTs per betting shop should be scrapped, with councils able to raise it.
A spokesman for the culture department said there were no plans to amend Labour’s Gambling Act //