A casino boss in Nottingham says she is struggling to find enough specially trained staff to meet demand.

The rising popularity of gambling has led to a shortage of croupiers, Gala Casino’s Maggie Smith said.

She said some casinos are recruiting croupiers from overseas because young people are unwilling to work anti-social hours.

The concern comes as the government proposes to issue licences for 17 new casinos across the UK.

„It is difficult purely because we’re generally a night time operation and a lot of young people – rather than work at night – would like to be out with their friends,“ Ms Smith said.

„On the other side of the table once we’ve trained them sometimes they’ll stay for a year and then they’ll go on the (cruise) ships.“