The die is cast - will the new gaming laws cause more problem gamblers?
Jonathan Sellers started small when it came to gambling but he is the first to admit that it soon affected every area of his life.
He describes how it all began: "On my way home from work one night, I decided to pop into an amusement arcade just to kill time waiting for a bus. I put �1 in a machine and won.
"I then put everything back and then some more besides ... and basically every night after that I went back and back and it started getting worse and worse."
Jonathan won just �5 that first time but the then 19-year-old found the buzz intoxicating, and before he was 25, his addiction almost cost him his life:
"I actually walked down the road, waited for a bus and I just threw myself in front of it.
"Luckily enough, the bus driver stopped before he hit me.
"At that point I decided to ring home and tell everybody what had been going on."
Children addicted
Captain Dean Pallant from the Salvation Army says that Jonathan's story is not unusual: "You might think it's just a harmless fruit machine but children can get addicted, and adults.
"With the huge increase in gambling opportunities now - the internet gambling, the casinos, sports betting - we are suggesting people should be very careful about increasing the opportunities for gambling."
Low-stake fruit machines might not have the glamour of glossy Vegas-style casinos but many believe their temptation is just as dangerous.
That is why the government is being lobbied to think hard before agreeing to raise the stakes in public houses.
But pub landlords feel they are victimised at a time when gambling restrictions as a whole are being relaxed.
Robert Booth from the Forester's Arms pub in Sherburn in Elmet, near Leeds, says: "People that used to come here do not come in because of businesses opening up elsewhere that have increased gaming machines and payouts."
The increase they are asking for is just �10 to bring the jackpot to �35, but so far the government has not approved it - a decision which Robert says is costing landlords like him dearly.
Casino decisions imminent
Meanwhile, an initial decision on the siting of new casinos - from relatively small to the huge multimillion pound supercasinos - is due in the third week in May 2006.
There have been bids for a regional supercasino from Chesterfield, Hull, Leeds, Sheffield and Wakefield.
Many are concerned that an increase in such establishments will add to the number of compulsive gamblers.
However, the gambling trade's umbrella body BACTA says that the UK has one of the lowest rates of problem gambling in the world.
That may not be any comfort though to compulsive gamblers like Jonathan Sellers, who just want to keep out of the way of temptation.
The Politics Show
Let us know what you think.
Join presenter Cathy Killick for Politics Show on Sunday 04 June 2006 at 12.00pm.
Disclaimer: The BBC may edit your comments and cannot guarantee that all emails will be published.
One-Minute World News 
News services
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
click here to view the Politics Show Yorkshire and Lincolnshire 
