Why do so many people gamble?

That’s what the BBC Archive asks in the description of Fields of Play: Playing the Odds, an episode from Michael Dibb‘s five-part BBC Two anthology series exploring the meaning of “play” in everyday life, originally broadcast on 30 March, 1982.

The documentary takes a look at gamblers in England and the United States, when the former’s betting habits were still dominated by betting shops, bingo halls and “the pools,” and the latter’s was mainly confined to gambling at the now iconic, Las Vegas, Nevada and New Jersey’s Atlantic City.

The first half of the programme focuses on “the packed casino floors of Atlantic City,” as it goes through the first stages of regeneration following the opening of the city’s first casino in 1978, two years after New Jersey voters legalised gambling there.

Interestingly: the US edition of Monopoly took its street names from Atlantic City in the 1930s.

The second half of the documentary sees the crew go across the pond to Liverpool, UK, where England’s traditional legal betting market is swinging.

They explore every avenue of 80s betting life in the city, from the racecourses to high street betting shops, following factory workers at the football pools and punters attending the Grand National.

In the betting world of today that has become dominated by major brands and digital offerings, the BBC Archive footage gives a glimpse into a simpler time, where every bet included a physical slip, a chat at the till, and a greater sense of community as you watch your bet play out.