This law held firm until 1991 when the pressure exerted on the government from gambling operators, along with the government’s realisation that the existing legislation was out-dated and excessively prohibitive, forced a change. The process of deregulation began. The advent of the National Lottery Act in 1994 changed the face of gambling in the UK. The National Lottery is advocated by the government, a percentage of the revenue raised is very publicly channelled into charitable causes or community orientated arts ventures. It is acceptable, accepted and over the past 10 years has become so much a part of the national psyche that it has become part of our vocabulary: “If I win the lottery I’ll……” A significant factor in its success has been in the marketing and advertising. This could not have happened without the removal of that important phrase in the 1968 Gaming Act, prohibiting the stimulation of the demand for gambling. The removal of this phrase from legislation has allowed the National Lottery to grow into the phenomenon that it is. And in turn allowed the operators Camelot, and the government, to generate massive amounts of revenue from what some of the more left-wing social commentators consider a tax on the stupid.

The National Lottery continues unabated on prime time television and in every major newspaper. Gaming legislation has moved on since the initial Betting and Gaming Act of 1960, yet even this relatively modern legislation does not take into account the new form of gambling introduced alongside modern technology. There is no specific legislation regulating the latest boom in the gambling industry: internet gambling. It seems that it won’t be long before the National Lotteries Act begins to appear completely out dated in the face of modern technology and its capacity to bring the gambling industry into peoples homes.