Betting on horse racing is a huge industry, with billions of pounds being staked each year.

The Budd Report on gambling which was published last year showed the extent that gambling has become a part of our lives.

The gaming industry is worth �42bn a year in total, with bets on horse racing accounting for over 4% of all of the gambling activity in this country.

There are now 59 racecourses across the country, which between them stage more than 7,000 races a year.

Flutter

And the bookies have a heavy presence. The three major bookies in the UK (William Hill, Ladbrokes and Coral) own more than 3,000 betting shops between them.

Around 18% of men and 9% of women bet on a race at least once a year, with 25 to 34-year-olds being the most likely to have a flutter.

And it is a very lucrative industry, with more than �5bn wagered on horse races in the UK each year.

That means that Britons bet an average of �11m a week on horse racing.

Online betting

The advent of online betting has increased the amount money washing around the betting industry even further.

It has been estimated that the lure of tax free online betting has landed the bookies a further �2bn a year in revenue from horse racing alone.

The main players are all hoping that this move will attract more business from the extremely lucrative Asian market, which accounts for more than half of all of the gambling in the world today.