Today, a staggering £500m will be staked on the Grand National. But behind the harmless notion of the occasional ‘flutter on the horses’ lurks a growing, and addictive, social problem

It’s the day when many of us make our annual trip to the betting shop to put a few quid on the horse with the nice name. We won’t be the only ones – 40 per cent of the adult population of the UK admit to betting every year on the world’s most famous horse race. A bet on the Grand National is now a global event. More than 600 million people worldwide will stake around £500 million on the race at Aintree today. Harmless fun – and as the Catholic catechism tells us: “Games of chance (card games, etc.) or wagers are not in themselves contrary to justice.”

Many churches and schools have been built with the help of funds obtained through events such as “race nights” in parish halls. Indeed, gambling is part of the fabric of British society: in a country with some of the world’s most liberal gambling laws, the occasional flutter is looked on with cheerful indulgence.