The Government's review of gambling laws has recently come into force, with one of the major impacts for casinos being the abolition of the rule that new members have to wait 24 hours prior to gaming.

The resultant call from casino operators to "come and play" will inevitably lead both to an increase in the number of gamblers and also to new Las Vegas style "super-casinos" being introduced.

For me, gambling has always been a mix between the mundane and the very glamorous. As part of an Indian family, playing cards for money was a natural part of growing up, and by the age of nine I could hold my own in a group of adults playing three card brag. Playing cards was cultural, especially during the Hindu Diwali festival.

Yet, when it came to casinos, gambling always seemed to be something very different and glamorous, a view no doubt influenced by Sean Connery's first appearance as James Bond in Dr No, dressed in a dinner jacket, playing baccarat at a London casino.

My first (under-age) visit to a casino came as a teenager one New Year's Eve as a guest of a friend who taught me the basics of roulette as I gazed at the men and women, mostly drunk but looking supreme in their finery.

In the years that passed I joined all the casinos in my home town, not so much to gamble but more as a place to go and get free food and a drink at three in the morning with insomniac friends. The dress codes became more and more relaxed, so much so that when I last went to a casino, jeans, trainers and T-shirts had replaced the dinner jackets and ballgowns of years past.

Part of the reason for the dress down revolution has been the explosion of online gambling which has now overtaken the casino business in the UK in terms of money spent. Why bother dressing up in a shirt and tie when you can visit an online casino in your dressing gown?

The online gambling revolution has also led to a staggering growth in the game of poker in particular, with one online company floating its shares on the London Stock Exchange.

Now online poker tournaments are televised alongside saturated coverage of British, European and World poker tournaments,with Britain now producing its own poker celebrities.

Doubtless the online gambling bubble is set to burst in the not-too-distant future, and maybe even the poker phenomenom will begin to recede. But, until that time, casinos all around the country will be cashing in on the new fad, whilst the Government will be left to consider what the long term costs of such reforms on the nation's attitudes and behaviour will be.