It all began with fruit machines on the Brighton seafront: cherries and bells, the flickering lights and weathered carpets of the West Street arcades, the little tinkle of change as a nine-year-old boy’s pocket money disappears down the chute, never to be seen again. Later it would be the horses and dogs, football and cricket, stocks and shares, poker and property empires. And later still the happiness and livelihoods of real human beings, the pride of an entire town.

From his very earliest years Tony Bloom knew he had an addictive personality that drove him to gamble. And as the stakes began to rise, he realised he would need to learn how to do it better than anyone else.