From Prohibition to Regulation: Bookmaking, Anti-gambling and the Law Book

The policing of illegal betting and bookmaking was a major issue in relations between police and working-class people until 1960, when betting shops were legalized in England and Wales. This ended an attempt to discriminate legally against cash betting away from the racecourses, which had reached its height with the Street Betting Act of 1906. This book, a contribution to the sociology and the social history of law-making, is the first major study to trace the rise and fall of the attempt at prohibition, along with detailed consideration of problems encountered by the police in enforcing anti-gambling laws, and the role of the police and the Home Office in the gradual acceptance of the need for legal reform. This study will be of special interest to criminologists, sociologists; students and scholars of socio-legal studies, and social and legal historians.Read More