WOMEN and middle-class teenagers are now as likely to have a flutter as betting-shop punters because of the boom in internet casinos.

People who might once have restricted their gambling activities to an annual bet on the Grand National are becoming addicted to poker, blackjack, one-armed bandits and even online share dealing.

More than 64per cent of online punters are now women, and the typical net gambler is a middle-aged housewife, a study by the internet tracking agency Nielsen has found.

Women are drawn to the instant gratification of online gambling, where they can place a bet from the comfort of their home.

They can also bet on one-off events, such as the Oscars, rather than traditional horse-racing.

“We are now looking at a form of gambling that is the hidden end of a hidden addiction,” said Faith Freestone, of Gordon House, Britain’s only charity offering residential care for gambling addicts.

She said that 8per cent of the inquiries received at Gordon House are from women. This year, the charity opened the first women-only residential unit for addicts.

Last year Britons bet £3.5 billion online, and a quarter of those registering for internet accounts were women.

“Women hate going into smoky betting shops — it’s an intimidating environment,” James Hipwell, editor of the gambling magazine Inside Edge, said. It is a woman, Michelle Black, who holds the British record for an online win.

Although the creation of the National Lottery in 1995 helped to fuel the culture of a “quick flutter”, the lottery itself has recently lost income in the face of the new internet-based competition.

According to a 1999 survey, 0.6 to 0.8per cent of the adult population (between 275,000 and 370,000 people) are estimated to be problem gamblers of whom about 2per cent are women.

The lack of regulation means that online gambling is also the only form of serious gambling available to underage punters. Women and teenagers are attracted to the range of betting options available on the internet.

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 proliferating.

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