This state-approved sanitisation of gambling is comparable to Fair Trade marketing ethically produced cocaine or the Department of Health sponsoring Special Brew. Neither of which is likely to happen. But if you accept that this gambling explosion is a good thing - and let's face it, a good old flutter can provide a certain legal thrill - then you're going to need some guidance around the race-courses, card-rooms, internet sites and football tournaments.
And that guidance is soon to arrive from a new national newspaper, the first major title to launch since The Independent in 1986, called The Sportsman. Led by its chairman, the former Telegraph Group chief executive Jeremy Deedes, and backed by the sons of the late Sir James Goldsmith, it aims to offer its predominantly male audience the "big betting stories of the day".
Existing race and betting titles, such as The Sporting Life and Racing Post, are doing well, so it seems a good time to launch into a growing market. Dennis Publishing has already seen this opportunity, launching its monthly title Inside Edge.
The Sportsman, expected to launch next spring, is set to be a daily newspaper aiming for a circulation of 40,000. And, unlike other rumoured national newspaper launches (Stephen Glover's The World springs to mind), the founders of The Sportsman are launching into a market where there is demand, from readers and advertisers. The new gambling audience has money to spend, but there's no way for advertisers to reach them is the argument.
Obviously, the main challenge for Deedes and his team is to attract these advertisers, who would no doubt be interested in reaching upwards of 40,000 affluent male readers daily. Clearly, the trick will be to develop editorial to create the right audience profile - and it sounds like the plan is to fuse coverage of sports betting with other gambling events, such as big City news or political shenanigans.
The Sportsman will have to fight to achieve business success but its name could prove a great asset in this sports-obsessed era. Though reading a title called The Sportsman when you're really someone who gambles while watching sport seems a bit fraudulent.
Like watching a porn film alone and claiming you've had sex.
Advertisers and agencies will be wary of this gap between real sport and betting and won't fall for any tricks when buying into the new title's audience. But with Deedes lending the launch some credibility, it has a better than evens chance of success.