Number of gambling addicts soars to 800,000

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The Government-sponsored report is expected to show that around 800,000 people have problems with regular and uncontrolled gambling.

There were just 300,000 the last time a similar study was conducted eight years ago.

The huge rise has come alongside the boom in internet gambling, which has brought sports and machine gambling into the homes of people who would once have had to visit a betting shop or casino.

This has also made gambling on credit cards easy.

The British Gambling Prevalence Study is also expected to say that the number of Britons who gamble has soared from 33million to 40 million. The findings match estimates from gambling experts and charities.

Gordon Brown is already rowing back on Labour support for the expansion of gambling.

The Prime Minister put an extra £100million in tax on casinos in his last Budget as Chancellor and has called for a review of plans for a supercasino.