A bigger risk in pursuit of a much bigger prize

FOR Peter Brown it’s a no-brainer. Gambling is for entertainment. Spread betting is how to make money. And with a punt just a click of a mouse away, the potential to make buckets of cash is out there, but you have to be careful.

Spread betting is a potentially lucrative and highly dangerous element of online gambling. The stakes are high and so are the risks — and it can now be pursued by anybody with broadband and an interest in financial markets.

No longer are stockbrokers the gamekeepers. No longer is the stock exchange the market to which buyer and sellers go in order to make money on shares. No old school tie required. Just tune in, turn on, and away you go, tracking the rise and fall of stock markets, and betting whether they are going north or south.