In an address to the Society of Gambling Studies Lord Mancroft stated the brief given to his father when given the job of Chairman of the Tote - this was before my time so maybe common knowledge to the old-timers on here but I thought it was interesting.

In the 1950’s my father was a Home Office Minister in Macmillan’s Government. In that capacity he once made a speech in which he said that he believed that most organised crime in Britain emanated from the bookmakers. Twenty years later Reggie Maudling, then Home Secretary, summoned him to the Home Office and asked him if he still held that view.

“Why?” asked my father.

“Because I want you to be chairman of the Tote,” the Home Secretary replied. So my father, who couldn’t count and hated racing, ended up running the Tote. Interestingly my father’s brief was to destroy the bookies. His first port of call was to consult his old friend and keen racehorse owner the Duke of Devonshire, who advised him that it was impossible to do away with bookmaking, for the simple reason that too many members of the Jockey Club owed the bookies too much money.

I have no means of knowing whether it was right or not – nor did my father – but he always thought there was more than an element of truth to it. Of course, this was over thirty years ago, in what was a very different age, but it does give an insight into some of the history of gambling in this country, and some of the prejudices that run along
side it.

It makes you wonder how different things would be today if he had succeded.




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