Tuesday 19th January

I have never gambled; maybe because I am scared of my slightly addictive behaviour.  Also, and this is really daft, when I was about 15 my Dad as usual asked us to choose a horse for the Grand National.  I picked Foinavon, and it won at 100-1 because all the other horses fell over in front of it.  I couldn’t believe my luck, and it acted as a salutary lesson – I would never be that lucky again.  The truth about gambling is that a mug’s game.  However it is far easier to win on an odds-on favourite than a rank outsider and professional gamblers often make a living by betting rather large sums at very poor odds to win relatively small amounts, compared to their stake that is.  Of course when they have insider information it is much easier, which is why one should steer clear of the stock market as the really skillful brokers know far more than you will ever do.

Gambling was common for years on the horses, even in Victorian times, but with the advent of the internet and mobile technology and relaxed gambling laws it is now possible to gamble in real time.  And not just on Horse or Dog Racing but on every Sport imaginable – and not just on the result but on ridiculous things such as the next corner or the next foul, or in cricket the number of no-balls bowled, or really anything you can imagine.  It sometimes seems that the world has gone crazy, but the whole thing is driven by greed as usual.  And along with this greed comes corruption.  We have had cricketers banned and footballers investigated and I have just read on the BBC website that there has been suspicion of widespread betting irregularities for many years on tennis matches.  And when you come to think about it, these individual sports are far more prone to a player being paid to throw a match.  We had the unedifying spectacle recently of John Higgins being approached and asked to throw matches; this was caught on camera and Higgins was eventually cleared, but the temptation must be real, especially among minor players whose winnings may be relatively low anyway.  And one has to wonder if Sport is really what we think it is.  Already many events are sponsored by betting organizations, and they are probably making more money than the players.  So, whenever there is a major upset, when a clear favourite plays badly, when a goalkeeper misses easy shots, when players foolishly tackle and get sent off, when snooker players miss sitters, when cricketers bowl terribly – what are we to believe?

And allied with the increasing evidence of drug-taking in so many sports one begins to question any performance at all.  It is all the fault of money of course, there is far too much money in Sport and in Gambling and sadly we know we will never get back to those times of real amateurs untarnished by big wages, or more often the fear of losing them.  And saying that I still enjoy watching Sport, especially Snooker and Tennis and Athletics – but it does make you wonder.