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> The world is getting stranger

In the U.K. I was betting 5 minute binary options back in 2008 and parlays or accumulators as we call them (accys for short) have been popular for a while too.

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Rightly or wrongly, The Gambling Act 2005 put the UK literally decades ahead of places like the US in terms of creating a legal framework for sports betting/gambling in general.

And that's how you get a Paddy Power next to a William Hill while the rest of the high street is shuttered.

And Betfred just threatened to close 1,300 high street betting shops if Reeves increases gambling taxes in the budget next month.

https://www.ft.com/content/3641f944-38cc-4ed5-853a-03fab3ac4...

How is that a threat?

Do you think that's better or worse than an entirely shuttered high street? Why?

Because the gambling industry is a parasite.

Those are the choices? I hope not.

The forces that made those shops appear and made the greengrocers disappear are not natural, inevitable, and foolish to resist. They are just laws, laws that permitted some things and discouraged others, taxed some things and subsidized others.

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