The Ballad of the Bet

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Poetry, music and oral history from the inner life of gambling

From a day at the races to the roulette wheel on our phones, poet Amy Acre explores gambling from the inside.

In the small hours of the night, we are up in our thousands watching a wheel spin on our phones - a roulette wheel. It may be virtual, yet for many of us it has a power beyond the real. Gambling has been spun inside down and inside out by the internet age, never more so than under lockdown. With the Gambling Act currently under review, Amy Acre brings the experience of betting alive through poetry, music and oral histories, tracing the social history of gambling over three generations.

Image of Amy Acre by Jamie Cameron
Sound design and original music by Jon Nicholls
Vocals by Steph MacGaraidh
Producer Monica Whitlock
Production Coordinator Janet Staples
Editor Hugh Levinson

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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