There's a question mark over the sense of allowing tv advertising and - worse - actual gambling on TV. In the UK, it all goes back to Labour's Gordon Brown who decided that the UK's economy would be served by a massive relaxation of the laws on gambling, especially casinos. Suddenly, gambling was cool - after all "Cool Britannia" was Noo Labour's central policy, chummy first names and all.
The end result was an explosion of gambling of many kinds. And that meant competition in an expanding market. Late night, drunk or sexually frustrated TV watchers were offered a choice - soft (sometimes not so soft) porn, often masquerading as documentaries - and games in which telephone customers bet on televised casino games - or phoned a woman who appeared on their screen, her g-string being her...
