14 FEBRUARY 1947, Page 5

The scandal of the football pools remains a scandal, in

spite of the refusal of the Government to interfere with it. It is not at all enough to say that the Government cannot interfere with the moral habits of the people. Why are there any laws for the regulation of betting? The urgent question today is whether the country can afford to see between 300,000 and 400,000 people engaged in an employment that is not merely utterly non-productive but on balance definitely demoralising. It is admittedly difficult to see how the evil is to be coped with, but the Government might do something better than simply wash its hands of the business.