Often when I’m at a non work related social event and meeting new people, I’ll be asked “and what do you do?” My answer varies.

One answer is to say “I’m in digital marketing”. This is pretty uncontentious and unless the person I’m talking to is also in some form of digital marketing they rarely enquire any further.

If I’m feeling a bit more mischievous I’ll say “I’m in digital marketing for the online gambling industry” or even, to make it crystal clear, “You know GoCompare, well we’re that for online bingo sites and casinos” and watch the reaction. Some people are completely unfazed. Others look utterly horrified.

For those who look horrified (and there are quite a lot of them) I throw the lifeline of “Ha ha, that was a bit of a conversation stopper wasn’t it” which gives them the option of changing the subject. But some don’t change the subject and either enquire further out of morbid fascination or seek to lecture me about the evils of gambling.

And here’s where it becomes apparent that there’s some very weird doublethink going on here in the UK around the subject of gambling (both online and offline).

Firstly, there’s some incoherent political thinking going on around personal freedom and government interventions. Some of the most socially liberal people out there also have the biggest downer on gambling; they don’t want the government to ban people from doing anything but they also feel the gambling industry ought not to be allowed. And then there’s those in favour of government interventions to protect consumers – but somehow, not for gambling.

To them, I say – look at how Prohibition worked out. Regulate and tax, don’t ban, or you end up with gambling’s equivalent of moonshine and the Mafia.

And speaking of tax, secondly there’s lots of people who get upset about the Coates family (bet365) and the Done family (Betfred) being amongst the top UK taxpayers (£375.9m and £204.6m respectively putting them 3rd and 4th on the list complied by the Times newspaper).

To them, I say – err, why are you getting upset about people paying their tax in the UK rather than moving the money offshore?

And thirdly, there’s a whole world of snobbery going on and it’s both intellectual and class snobbery. It happens when people have a view of gambling as something bad and dangerous, that’s only done by other people (the subtext being that those other people are somehow inferior and are either weak or don’t know any better) and needs to be reined in.

And to them, I say – have you ever:

  • Bought a lottery ticket?
  • Bought a raffle ticket at a school fair or charity event?
  • Entered a Grand National sweepstakes?
  • Had a flutter at Ascot or Cheltenham?

…because if you have (and they almost always have) – YOU’RE a gambler, mate!