The promise of the United States market has made it the focus of many of the world’s major operators, but alongside that expansion has come a debate about gambling which will be familiar to observers of the sector in Britain in recent years.

There has been a tension in the relationship between sports and gambling in the US ever since eight Chicago White Sox players were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series, and those feelings have come to the surface again.

Baseball has again become the focus of attention with the news that one of the sport’s biggest stars, Shohei Ohtani, has been embroiled in a scandal involving his interpreter who, it is alleged, took millions of dollars from the player’s account to pay off an illegal bookmaker.