A licence to print money - Jamie Reid

Gambling - on horses, dogs and roulette wheels - has been the subject of countless films and novels, but this is the first book to examine the facts while retaining all the excitement of fiction. How have the big bookmaking firms got away with printing money for three decades? How much government control of the industry should there be? How have bookies achieved their extraordinary transformation from spivs operating in smoke-filled rooms to executives of multi-million-pound 'leisure industries' taking bets on anything from the weather to archbishops? And who are the punters - the professionals and the mugs - persevering in a desperate attempt to prise their fortunes from them?