Panorama Tonight

[Hannibal smith]

But that's what happens, and rightly. Heroin is banned because it kills people. Gin was restricted in the 18th century because half of London was dying from drinking too much of it. You can either say "it's up to the individual, nothing else matters" or acknowledge the fact that there's nothing wrong with responsible governments stopping the underclasses from either killing or themselves or bankrupting themselves.

If people want to gamble you can’t stop them. If Internet gambling is banned, there is still an opportunity to bet on the high street, in the casino or over the telephone.

There will always be problems with some people drinking too much, gambling too much or smoking too much. There is no solution as even if you were to ban each of these elements there would still be a black market in all these things. Besides which, you would be punishing many people who happily drink, smoke or gamble in moderation.

As other people have mentioned, individuals ultimately have to help themselves. Temptation isn’t going to go away, in fact it will only get worse.