In another court move that makes every online casino in UK look like a shining example of righteousness and upright behaviour, a man from Preston and his son have been handed jail time for their exploits as illegal bookmakers, setting up shop in their living rooms and taking money left right and centre.

The man, named James Alston, is 74 years old and describes himself as a professional gambler. That does not excuse the fact that he set up three television sets, tuned them in to different racing channels, and put a gaming machine in his front room, and started to take bets from his friends. As things got more serious he got himself a bet settler machine, which works out the payout on complex bets, and even kept a ledger – something that proved to be his undoing when it was seized by police in a raid last year.

Alston was apparently making as much as £2,000 from this illegal operation, and brought the word “immoral” into the situation as well by offering loans and credit in order to collect interest from unsuspecting neighbours. Though he claimed it was all a bit of innocent fun from which he did not profit, it turns out that he managed to make around £100,000 over the course of his efforts. He also earned himself a little something different: eighteen months at Her Majesty’s pleasure, where he will be joined by his son James Alston Junior for twelve months on similar charges. It only took thirteen days for a judge to settle the sentence, in a case that the UK Gambling Commission says is the first of its kind.

Now, we have already been seeing some new casinos in London in honour of the Olympics and the other international events that the city has seen lately, but recent reports are starting to suggest that the crowds have not been as big as anticipated. This means trouble for all kinds of business, but surely the casinos will be hardest hit – after all, why would UK residents go out and gamble, forcing their way through the crowds of tourists and spectators, when they could simply sit at home in their living rooms and enjoy the same pastime? Someone somewhere needs to wise up, because land based gambling is dead. The fact that people were more willing to go next door to the Alstons’ than make the effort to go up the high street really proves that!