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Gambling has been around for a very long time - literally thousands of years.  Half the adult population of the UK buys a lottery ticket.  A quarter play bingo, visit casinos, try their luck with scratch cards, sweat on the result of top football matches, put money on horses or dogs, and just about every form of sport imaginable.  Betting is now accessible from anywhere, anytime with a tap on a smartphone or tablet, but its traditional high street bookmakers who are at the centre of a controversy over what’s been called the crack cocaine of gambling.

Fixed Odds Betting Terminals – known as FOBTs -  can swallow up a hundred pounds every twenty seconds.   Wales alone has 1,500, and each is reckoned to take a million pounds a year in stakes - which is a staggering one-and-half billion pounds.  A speaker at this week’s General Synod of the Church of England spoke of them feeding off poverty and plunging people into unmanageable debt. 

Roy Jenkins explores some of the issues around gambling: how much is there? How addictive is it?  What’s the role of government support groups and faith communities in curbing its dangers?

Sarah Grant, a problem gambler at the recovery centre Living Room Wales shares her experience of losing everything and ending up in prison.

And taking part in the discussion are:
Wynford Ellis Owen, Chief Executive of the recovery centre
Dan Boucher, Director of Parliamentary Affairs for the Christian charity ;
Malcolm George, Chief Executive of the .