ANOTHER day, another announcement of record profits from a major bookmaker, this time Hills.

Why don't these companies bring in a few more roulette machines (I refuse to called them FOBTs), stop trying to mess with Betfair and actually recognise how much the exchange has helped their profits?

How? By taking the smart money away, that's how. Only one bookmaker's PR man has ever admitted to me just how relieved his firm is that the wise guys conduct their majority of their business on Betfair, leaving the less discerning punters to tolerate the despicable over-rounds on BAGS racing and place doomed 14-timers on the weekend football.

Bruce Millington from the Racing Post in an article entitled 'Betfair boosting bookies' profits'

We have stopped trading on low profile early round matches involving Labadze.

Bet365's Robin Green quoted in the Racing Post, after Betfair reported irregular betting patterns involving the Georgian tennis player.

When the government agreed to replace betting duty with a gross profits tax, it embraced a vision of the UK as the world leader in gambling - particularly online gambling. By 2010, net revenues for the UK from remote gambling are expected to total over pounds 6 billion. Sensibly, the government has taken the view that if other countries want to ban online gambling, that's their problem.

David Ashforth of the Racing Post spells out the value of online betting to UK PLC 15/5/04