‘King Solomon’s mines cannot compare with the money that has been raked in by greyhound racing’: Greyhound racing, its critics and the working class, c. 1926 to 1951.

Greyhound racing emerged in Britain in 1926 and, during its first quarter of a century, was subject to institutional middle-class opposition because of the legal gambling opportunities it offered to the working class. Much maligned as a dissipate and impoverishing activity it was in fact a significant leisure opportunity for the working class, which cost little for the minority of bettors involved in what was clearly no more than a ‘bit of a flutter’.