The UK has been the epicentre of Sports betting for years and has
a long and intriguing history:
1539: Organised two-horse races began at Chester. Spectators would
bet on the action.
1541: The Unlawful Games Act 1541 made almost all forms of
gambling illegal, although it wasn’t enforced. Gambling debts
could not be pursued through the courts.
1710: The Gaming
Act was established during the reign of Queen Anne. It set a
maximum allowable gaming debt to be 10 pounds. The first Lotteries
began with the profits going to the Treasury, to fund wars. When
peace returned, Government Lotteries were abolished in 1826.
1711: Ascot Racecourse was established, under the Patronage
of Queen Anne.
1750: The Jockey Club was formed at
Newmarket, with the aim of preventing any dishonesty in horse
racing. This paved the way for gambling on horse racing to become
more widespread.
1776: The St Leger at Doncaster began.
1780: The Derby at Epsom began.
1790: Harry Ogden
became the world’s first official bookmaker when introducing the
innovation of laying odds on every horse in a race.
1845:
The 1845 Gaming Act legalised games of Skill, It also introduced
legislation, to ensure that bookmakers were paying out correctly.
1850: There were estimated to be over 150 betting ‘houses’
in the London area.
1853: This made wagering at high street
betting shops illegal. Bookmakers responded by hiring ‘Runners’
who were faster than the Police, to accept bets. All legal betting
activities had to take place at horse racing tracks.
1875:
The invention of the telphone allowed on-track bookmakers to take
bets from people across the country. 1883: The Sporting Life
became a daily Newspaper.
1928: The Racecourse Betting Act
regulated betting on Horse Races, the 1934 update added Greyhound
Racing to the legislation.
1960: The Betting and Gaming Act
re-legalised off-track bookmakers, allowing betting shops to
return to the High street and accept bets on various sports.
1996: UK punters began betting online, after gambling
websites launched. 2001: The Chancellor Gordon Brown abolished
betting taxes for punters and began taxing bookmakers instead.
Many moved offshore to Gibraltar, Malta or the Isle of Man, but a
‘point of consumption’ tax then forced them to pay tax on bets
accepted from UK punters.
2005: The Gambling Act in the
United Kingdom created the Gambling Commission, which regulates
the industry.