Death of the Ex-Policeman

Chapter 5 shows that lower-level actors within firms have much to teach us about the gendered and classed impacts of regulation. The chapter analyses how staff working in commercial bingo experienced the shift from ‘command and control’ style regulation, underpinning the 1968 Gaming Act, to the current risk-based regime in the 2005 Gambling Act. Seeking to contribute a gendered angle to scholarship on the consequences of regulatory reform for occupational status and autonomy, the chapter examines the impact of self-regulation on commercial bingo hall managers—a mostly male, non-professional group of workers whose claims to status have relied heavily on state licensing procedures. By analysing the changing rules, practices, and feelings involved in personnel licensing within bingo halls, the chapter makes two interlinked claims. First, as the state stepped back from assessing and authorizing employee expertise, managerial authority, status, pay, and working conditions were all reduced. Second, the chapter identifies a classed and gendered desire for a return to command-and-control-style regulation.