Evening Standard (London): Gambling law is not a class act

NO doubt there is an element of truth in Peter Oborne's assertion that opposition to the Gambling Bill comes from middleclass suspicion about increasing access to gambling (A little flutter, 18 October).

However, to suggest that Tessa Jowell's priority is to open up more casinos for the benefit of working people misses the point. The Government wants to expand gambling in the UK because the Treasury has its greedy eyes on the resultant revenue.

It also ignores a recent NOP poll carried out by the Salvation Army, which showed that 93 per cent of people think that there are already enough opportunities to gamble.

Outcry against the new Bill has come not just from the chattering classes, but from a variety of organisations and individuals worried about the social impact of the proposals, including religious groups, MPs and even the Government's own backbenchers.

Peter Oborne's feel-good gambling experiences do not seem to us to be a wise or sensible model to emulate, given the Bill's unglamorous implications for society as a whole.

Don Horrocks, Head of Public Affairs, The Evangelical Alliance.

GAMBLING certainly was, as Peter Oborne suggests, a class issue in the first half of the last century. But it was the collective will of the people and the swiftness of the bookies' runner that led directly to the legalisation of betting shops.

In the 1980s, further opportunities for the man in the street appeared when amusement arcades sprang up in almost every town.

Casinos however have been stuck in a time warp and remain subject to some of the most stringent gambling regulations in the world - enshrined in the Gambling Act of 1968, which was brought in to counteract a disastrous earlier Bill that led to around 1,200 casinos across the UK, infiltration by criminal gangs and massive exploitation. Regulation requires a casino to operate a membership rule, but then so must a bingo club.

The world has moved on and modernising the law on gambling is long overdue.

The key issue isn't one of class but of social responsibility - balancing the freedom of choice with protection for the vulnerable.

Paul Bellringer OBE, Responsible Gambling Solutions Ltd, Horsham,

London's locations

IT'S interesting that, of the top 10 London movie moments (Lights, camera, Acton, 13 October), three - Mary Poppins, Austin Powers and Bedknobs and Broomsticks - were filmed in LA.

But there have been more classic scenes filmed in London than you think.

The "Berlin" airport where Harrison Ford and Sean Connery board the Zeppelin in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, is in Westminster. And James Bond's location as he strides through the "Havana" cigar factory (Die Another Day) is no more tropical than Dalston.

Tony Reeves, author of The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations,