This book is the first national study of the football pools in Britain which examines the politics and culture of the gambling on the football pools.

Keith Laybourn is Diamond Jubilee Professor Emeritus at the University of Huddersfield. His main research interests are labour history and gambling, and he is President of the Society for the Study of Labour History. He has recently published Going to the Dogs (2019).

Chapter 1 Introduction and overview: debate and argument on working-class leisure, gambling and the football pools / Chapter 2 The emergence of the football pools c.1870-c. 1945: from bookmaker to the modern football pool company / Chapter 3 The politics of the football pools 1918-1945: the opposition of the chadbards, sabbatarians, the National Anti-Gambling League, the Football League and the Football Association / Chapter 4 The recovery, evolution and decline of the pools 1945-1990s / Chapter 5 The politics of the pools since 1945: conflict and acceptance of 'the ranks of high super-spivery' / Chapter 6 Employment, process and changing industrial relations in the football companies 1945-1990s / Chapter 7 An integral part of working-class life: was the pools worth 'the candle' in the culture of working-class life / Chapter 8 Challenge, decline and the restructuring of the pools: the impact of The National Lottery 'for good causes' / Chapter 9 Globalisation and the football pools / Chapter 10 Conclusion