With over 10 million viewers a month across the UK Casualty featured a character playing on a fake online site.

Consultant Theo ‘Stitch’ Lambert spends more time in his office on the site than colleagues would like but the character played by Australian actor Peter O’ Brien goes on a winning streak accumulating over £4,000.

His luck runs out though when nurse Nadia deletes his winnings in a fit of jealous rage.

The site shown on screen in bigbetworld.com but the site doesn’t actually exist. It was devised by IT specialists for the show specifically.

While the entire sequence was obviously not based on real events it does highlight the risks involved in not logging off from your online accounts thoroughly and correctly. Always make sure that you log out successfully at the end of your game ensuring that no one has access to your account.

Gambling also featured as a prominent story line recently in one of Casualty’s rival shows – ITV’s Emmerdale. In it pensioner Pearl Ladderbanks gambles on an online get rich quick scheme which predictably wipes out all of her savings.

Elsewhere Wendi Peters who plays Feisty fishwife Cilla Battersby in the world’s longest running soap opera Coronation Street has turned her hand to blackjack. Wendi, 38, is one of the famous faces taking part in Showbiz Blackjack on satellite channel Challenge.

Of course the topic of gambling has frequently raised its head on the big screen and well as on the small one.

Some of the most high profile gambling films include Casino Royale, The Sting, The Cincinnati Kid and Maverick.