Casinos in the UK were once confined to the big cities, such as Manchester, Leicester, Birmingham and of course, London. Nowadays they are being built in smaller towns and seaside resorts, such as Clacton, Brighton, Bath and Oxford.

There is a number of UK casinos now offering their space as venues for comedy nights, darts tournaments, pool and snooker tournaments and other televised events, so the casino is becoming a part of popular culture; a shrewd move on the part of the owners.

As with all dubious pastimes, such as drinking and smoking, UK casinos have come under much criticism from anti-gambling lobbies across the nation.

They are already under scrutiny from the new Conservative government, after the old Labour government passed laws allowing more casino licenses to be granted.

As with smoking and drinking, the argument is always that should an individual exercise restraint, there is no problem with these vices. The anti-gambling lobbies don’t see it the same way. They want regulated, localized gambling on a smaller scale, and have some considerable support across the UK.

Another argument on the casinos part is that online gambling cannot be easily regulated, it is not monitored as well as a bricks and mortar casino would be, and an individual is far more likely to use these often, as they can gamble from the comfort of their homes.

The future of the UK casino is safe for now, but we have yet to see what the Tories decide when it comes to granting new licenses. The recent growth spurt could be stunted yet.