From today adverts promoting gambling will be allowed on British Television screens, ads for arcades, bingo halls, casinos and bookmakers can be shown after the 9 p. m watershed for the first time. Thanks to provisions in the 2005 Gambling Act only just coming into force. They'll be regulated by a new watchdog, the gambling commission whose chairman joins us live in a moment, but still there are concerns that the campaigns will fuel problem gambling. As our home affairs correspondent Simon Israel reports.

There's a swinging sixties feel to the first TV gambling ad due to be broadcast in Wales and Northeast England tonight, conveying the idea that the good times are here. It marks a new era in gambling laws which will allow for the first time in 40 years pictures of actual playing at tables. The online brands such as Party Poker are expected to be major spenders on advertising, coupled the government says, with an onus on social responsibility.

They are some fairly strict codes of practice. But the codes of practice will regard to advertising have been drafted by the gambling operators themselves. The government went to them and said,'' now Mr. Fox we are concerned about the safety of our henhouse, what would you like to do to protect our henhouse?'' So the industry said, ''well, Let's see what we can get away with.''

Each of the providers have got to provide information support to people that can have problems with gambling, they do that through financial support for gambling charities, but also they've got to show advertisement's information. They've got to train their staff in making sure that people can recognize the symptoms. So I think its better to be open at all front, rather than to have it, say, in a behind closed doors or if you would like them on the counter.

But on the tables, the government's touch has been anything but sure. Gone are the eight supercasinos which are originally proposed by Tessa Jowell the former culture secretary and the one remaining is on hold until the gambling commission publishes its review later this month on the scale and social effects of gambling in the UK over the past 7 years. And that's before the introduction of TV adverts which will reinforce the gaming industry's current sponsorship of programs.

getmintedcasino. com , sponsors's shark. For us the change is gonna be one of move away from sponsorship which is what we' ve done in the past. We found that quite restrictive, because it really sort of ties us to one show or one format and then one audience and so by having a direct TV ad, and flexibility to change the spots that we choose, we can get for a more targeted approach. So wall-to-wall insurance ads may well be replaced by wall-to-wall gambling ads, and tonight's nod to social responsibility is a website address for problem gamblers at the end.

Well we are joined live now by Peter Dean who is chairman of the gambling commission. What do you think of those adverts that are purling every oyster, lots of young people having fun?

Well, alongside the freedom to ad, advertise which has come in today go very strict rules about what gambling, what of advertising is gonna be possible.

Sure. But you've seen the adverts, this has been approved. Are you happy with them?

Well, I haven't actually seen those adverts before, I am not sure where they are going out or when. What I can say is that all advertisements in Britain are going to, have to be socially responsible. They have to conform to strict codes. For example, they can't be targetted at children, they can't imply that gambling is a solution to financial problems and so on.

But we've got a situation where the government is being pressured to withdraw all of alcohol advertising, and these adverts look a lot like the ones we used to see for alco-pubs a few years ago?

I m not sure that that's right, the background to gambling in this country is the vast majority of adults who gamble completely harmlessly. And the new law' s being set up to recognize that gambling is not something to be, to be forbidden. It's to be permitted not strictly controlled. We're also about to provide this strict control.

But the big issue is by advertising, advertising works on bringing in new people, your own commission is expected in itself, for the coming review to acknowledge there will be a rise in problem gambling. What sanctions have you got in place to deal with it?

Well, the first, First of all, nobody knows what's going to come out of the review , it's gonna be published and to certain extent...
Well, we understand is there is expected to be an acknowledgement to that, the government chose to ignore charities, you must be preparing for that, what would you say to those who are worried that you need tough sanctions in case?

What I would say is that there is in place a new regulator, the Gambling Commission, which has..uh... very strict powers, (such as)to, powers to control what the operators do, (close down casinos?) certainly if the casinos don't observe the strict controls that are in place, We have powers to remove their license, they can go out of business. We have powers to impose very strict fines on limited amount, to prosecute, so we have very very strong teeth, I may say that the gambling industry in this country has traditionally behaved very responsibly.I would, then I would rather doubt that it would be often necessary to exercise this strict powers but they are there, if necessary. And if it's necessary, we would...

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1.watershed:The watershed is a time before which television broadcasters have agreed not to show programmes unsuitable for children, for example programmes that contain scenes of sex or violence. (BRIT)

2.a swinging sixties:the 1960s, a time when social and sexual freedom increased

3.onus:n.the responsibility for something