Interviewed in the FT, CBI chief Digby Jones warns that the government's plans for casino deregulation risk creating social problems.

He suggested the legislation could cross the "fine line" between wealth creation and damaging the social fabric of the country.

Meanwhile, Mark Griffiths, professor of gambling studies at Nottingham Trent University, says in the British Medical Journal that gambling is a serious health issue and doctors need to be alert to the symptoms.

"The rapid expansion of gambling represents a serious health concern," he says.

Today's Independent claims that the test of propriety "that has kept the Mafia and other 'rogue' businessmen out of British gambling for 30 years" is to be removed through modernisation of the gambling laws.

It has also emerged that seven of the 14 MPs on the committee which will scrutinise the legislation represent constituencies that have planning applications to build casinos.