Whoever is doing it, one bet is certain: there's an awful lot more of it going on than ever before and the Government is largely responsible for creating the situation. But the downside is that more people - particularly women - are now becoming addicted to gambling than ever before.

"There has been a huge creation of opportunities for betting, which have resulted in an increase in competition and value for money for everybody," said David Forrest, an economist and member of the Centre for Gambling at the University of Salford.

According to government figures the total amount of money staked in all gambling style activities, including the Lottery, bookmakers, casinos and slot machines, was pounds 63.8bn in 2002-03. About six out of 10 of us now spend at least pounds 50 a month gambling, according to government figures.

The biggest increase has been in ordinary betting, whether by bookmaker or on the Tote, which has risen from just pounds 7.3m in 2001 to pounds 29.6m last year. This is entirely due to Gordon Brown's decision that year to scrap the 50-year-old betting tax, which took about 7p on every pound staked or won, with most punters choosing the former. As a result, William Hill saw its profits increase by pounds 32m to pounds 170m in 2003; Ladbrokes says profits have risen 43 per cent this year. Change is also coming to Britain's 8,000 high street betting shops in an effort to become more user friendly - air conditioning and coffee and sandwich outlets are among the improvements being introduced.

But other areas have boomed as well. Bingo clubs, in decline a few years ago, have benefited from being allowed to advertise more freely; about three million people are now members of 670 clubs, staking pounds 1.4bn annually, an increase from pounds 1.08.bn five years ago.

The number of casinos has risen from 118 in 1999 to 131, more than any other European country apart from France, while the amount staked in casinos by punters has increased from pounds 3.16bn in 1999 to pounds 4.1bn this year. And now the industry is gearing up to profit even more from the planned deregulation, which will allow the creation of regional "super casinos" containing, as well as the conventional roulette and blackjack tables, huge numbers of Las- Vegas style slot machines which have no limit on their payouts.

Blackpool is already planning a massive development, based around such a casino which will create dozens of jobs and attract a completely different kind of punter, more akin to the well-off retired couples who travel to Las Vegas for a flutter. Officially, such developments will have to be part of a bigger leisure complex with hotels, restaurants and sports facilities. Sol Kerzner, the South African tycoon behind the Sun City development is also planning a "super casino" at the Millennium Dome in south London, in partnership with new owner, the American billionaire Philip Anschutz.

The Government has also framed the legislation in such a fashion as to assure the future of such "super casinos" once they get off the ground. They have scrapped plans to allow smaller, high street casinos which would have provided competition and created regulations preventing the building of larger casinos anywhere close.

Dr Forrest says that is a missed opportunity. "By concentrating the casinos around regional centres, they have lost out on what seemed to be a genuine opportunity to create a whole new area for people to enjoy themselves. Gambling can be a significant part of people's leisure spend, particularly among senior citizens," he said.

The other significant area of growth has been the internet, which has made online betting possible and thereby created a whole new set of punters who might otherwise have restricted their gambling activities to a once- a-year shot on the Grand National.

Betting exchanges, where punters bet among themselves rather than with bookmakers, and spread-betting sites, where bets are placed on the variation in a result from that expected by the bookie, are now also proliferating. Online betting is now likely to be less on horse- racing and more on football or one-off events such as the Oscars and Big Brother.

"The bookmakers shop has, as we know, a very narrow demographic profile, while online betting attracts people are the top and bottom end of the scale," said Dr Forrest.

At the bottom are women, who would not otherwise have much experience of betting and would never have gone near a betting shop while the second group are the experienced, professional gamblers, who spend their entire time studying form and now don't need to go near a betting shop.

But a large chunk of the revenue from these activities was going overseas and not, therefore, part of the pounds 1.5bn the betting and gaming industry pays each year in various taxes to the Treasury. Hence the government moves to help the British industry and protect that revenue, which has dropped slightly to pounds 1.3bn in the past few years.

Ironically, although the creation in 1995 of the National Lottery helped fuel the culture of a "quick flutter", the Lottery itself has recently seen its earnings drop in the face of the new internet based competition. "The Lottery is definitely a loser," said Dr Forrest, "People get bored with it and because it's only once a week, you lose that repetitive feeling that's part of the attraction of gambling."

But it is precisely that repetitive, addictive quality that has fuelled concerns that we are all about to become hooked on gambling, with enormous social and welfare consequences. According to a 1999 survey, 0.6 to 0.8 per cent of the adult population - 275,000 to 370,000 people - are estimated to be "problem gamblers" - that is defined as where it interferes with our social obligations - of which around two per cent are women. The figure is almost certain to have risen since.

Dr Forrest, who says he has never personally placed a bet in a bookmakers, is sanguine. "I've never been in fear of assault from a problem gambler. While I accept that there are issues for the families of gamblers, I don't believe they are the same consequences as those from alcohol." However, he points out the example of Australia, where deregulation allowed widespread placing of high- prize slot machines and the percentage of problem gamblers rose from about the British level to 3 per cent in just a few years.

Gordon House, the UK's only charity offering residential treatment programmes for gambling addicts, say 8 per cent of the inquiries they receive are from women, suggesting that the official figures underestimate the problem. This year, the charity opened the first - and only - women-only residential unit for addicts.

Places on the male and female programmes are oversubscribed. A spokeswoman said: "We have 35 places for men and four places for women but last year we received more than 200 applications. We have seen a 100 per cent increase in applications on the previous year, and increasing numbers of women gamblers."

She added: "Gambling is everywhere - in supermarkets and post offices with lottery tickets and on the internet. Internet gambling means women don't need to leave the house, they do it without being seen."