In an interview earlier this week, Peter Brooks the 65 year old boss of Genting UK, talked about the current state og the UK gambling industry. He predicted that certain changes could see the creation of thousands of British jobs and that the biggest objective should be in “the modernisation of gaming”.

Genting, has 44 casinos in the UK, including the new Riverlights Casino in Derby and London's Crockfords. In relation to the modernisation, Brooks commented: "We don't want it to be intimidating and male-dominated, we want to be seen as a genuine leisure choice,

"This is where casino should be in the 21st Century."

He claims that the UK gambling industry should create jobs, pay taxes and cater for all types of customers, whether they are high rollers or tourists.

"We want to demystify casinos, but we mustn't create a rowdy environment where people don't want to gamble,

"So here (at the comapny Palm Beach Casino in London), people can just drink, or migrate to the gambling area.  We hope we're getting the model right."

While not only running Genting UK, Brooks is very much proactive in the gambling industry in general. He has lobbied Minister John Penrose over the issue of responsible gambling and other issues facing the industry.

He believes that the government should allow gambling operators to move between different regions: "This chimes with the government's localism agenda and could create several thousand new jobs by allowing casinos to be built where there is local demand,"

Brooks has spoke with Penrose about virtual gaming and raised questions why virtual roulette is allowed and virtual cards are not "Why can't casinos offer that when you can do it everywhere online?"

Brooks also hopes that the review of the UK gambling industry tax structure in the coming months will not see an increase. He suggested that the UK gambling industry was already having a challenging time competing with other countries like China and Singapore and that tax breaks would be a solution to the problem.