It's great that the government is tightening regulation on the gambling industry

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

I have witnessed grown men losing hundreds of pounds in a single afternoon in my local betting shop (Alamy)

At long last someone has the will to do something about absurd amounts of money gambled on fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) – they are an abomination.

It is a cheap way of fleecing gamblers and creating a habit just like alcohol and drugs. I have witnessed grown men losing hundreds of pounds in a single afternoon in my local betting shop. Having these terminals does away with the need to open a casino, which is very expensive. Why do it when the betting companies can accrue profits with little or no additional outlay?

Well done to the government – but bring in the legislation soon to prevent further pain to gamblers and their families. This move will be a tremendous benefit to addicted gamblers and certainly not hurt the gambling companies.

Long live common sense.

Keith Poole
Basingstoke

Doing the right thing over Palestine should come before protecting reputation

Robert Fisk deserves a standing ovation if not the Nobel Peace Prize for standing up with dignity when it comes to justice and human rights.

Many people, including our honourable politicians, lose their honour and bury their heads in the sand when it comes to the Palestinian sufferings.

They do so to preserve their seats not knowing that standing up for justice is worthwhile even if it costs one’s seat. How long are you going to keep that seat anyway? Most certainly not forever.

It is as if we don’t consider the Palestinians as part of the human species. They don’t deserve our silence and looking the other way when they need our help the most.

In every human atrocity, there are people who history has recorded in the book of shame for choosing not to speak up. In doing so they have taken their guilt to their graves.

History will not remember us well if we continue to be complicit in these crimes against humanity.

Enough is enough. Let us stand together and say enough to these sufferings.

Abubakar N Kasim
Toronto, Canada

What about the ‘rough sleepers’ waiting for the marriage ceremony?

In the run-up to the wedding on Saturday, Windsor council cleared the streets of the homeless so as not to offend the royal couple or just to prettify the town. Now it seems the route is lined with people, presumably who have homes to go to, with all their overnight paraphernalia including sheets of cardboard to sleep on!

G Forward
Stirling

Meghan Markle is not the first to walk down the aisle unconventionally

I was delighted to hear that Prince Charles is to walk Meghan Markle down the aisle after illness prevented her father attending her wedding. In fact five royal brides in recent history have also not walked beside their fathers:

Queen Victoria was escorted by her paternal uncle, the Duke of Sussex; her daughters, Princesses Helena and Beatrice were both escorted by Queen Victoria herself; Princess Margaret by Prince Philip; while the Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Charles walked down the aisle together.

John Cameron
St Andrews

It would be ‘outward looking’ for Scotland to embrace the rest of the UK

SNP external affairs secretary, Fiona Hyslop, boasts to the world congress on migration, ethnicity, race and health that Scotland is “outward looking” – and in this she is arguably correct. She cites Scotland’s vote to remain in the EU as evidence.

Presumably, on this basis our 2014 vote to remain part of the wider UK similarly shows us as outward looking, not seeking to cut ourselves off from our closest neighbours, friends, family and trading partners? Or is this contradiction lost on Hyslop and the rest of the SNP establishment?

Martin Redfern
Edinburgh

Alex Salmond is a risk to Scottish independence

Some in the independence movement will be delighted to hear that Alex Salmond used his “declaration of Morningside” to announce he would return to the fray of frontline politics for Indyref2. Yet perhaps they should be careful what they wish for.

I suspect Nicola Sturgeon will be less than overjoyed at the thought of having such a divisive figure playing a prominent role during any future campaigning, not least because of the risk that he will tend to drift off from a carefully honed SNP party line.

As for those who value Scotland’s place in the UK, while most will hopefully need no new incentive, the prospect of Alex Salmond as a Scottish Republic’s first president will surely fire up everyone’s enthusiasm.

Keith Howell
West Linton