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Credit crunch 'not affecting people's willingness to gamble'

The gambling industry is not being affected particularly badly by the credit crunch at present, an expert has suggested.

Peter Petrie, a spokesman for bookmaker Totesport, said that his firm has not witnessed any reduction in the number of bets being placed since the economic problems began.

"It looks like people want to use the credit crunch to win some money," he commented. "I honestly don't think the credit crunch comes into it at all."

Mr Petrie made his remarks following several days of upheaval in the world's markets, during which Lehman Brothers went bankrupt and fellow financial giants Merrill Lynch and AIG had to be bailed out.

Gaming industry representatives have said repeatedly in recent months that they do not expect that such turbulence will affect them too much, however.

At the start of September, PokerPlayer Magazine's editor-in-chief Dave Woods said no impact has been seen in the poker world yet, claiming that "the poker economy is an economy in itself".