There appears to be a quaint notion that we do like to pop down to our local bookie for a once–a-year flutter on the Grand National or The Derby.

The former is no longer a horse race that stops the nation, just like a quarter of a million people don’t mount Epsom Downs in their charabancs in the first week of June any more.

All this sepia-tinted stuff has gone the same way as sitting over your mince-and-mash midweek worrying over your eleven score draws on the pools coupon.

That it has taken our legislators until 2023 to work out that the smartphone has changed everything, and gambling in particular, is worrying.

The government, which has put together some thoughts on a new gambling bill,