Gerry Sutcliffe, Britain’s Minister for Sport and Tourism has opened the way for Caribbean online gambling sites to advertise here.

Fears that the worldwide economic downturn is hitting land based gambling gathered pace this week after a new casino in the centre of Huddersfield closed after just two months in operation.

The 2007 Gambling Prevalence study found that there are around 280,000 (0.6 percent of UK population) problem gamblers in the UK. To try to reduce that figure and make sure people gamble more responsibly, the government has opened a clinic in London specifically designed to treat problem gamblers.

Joao Barbosa, from Portugal, has won the Main Event at the PokerStars.com EPT Warsaw; otherwise known as the Polish Open. It is his first EPT title and by doing so has won 367,141 euro in prize money in the process.

An extremely lucky slots player from Portsmouth has become the biggest British online slots winner. The man - who wishes to remain anonymous, is believed to be a 49 year-old computer engineer from the South Coast.