Put away the whist and rummy: casinos are coming to Eastbourne, Bath and Harrogate

The establishment of two new "Las Vegas" style gambling centres - in the north of England and in London - came a step closer yesterday as the Home Office proposed allowing at least 21 new casinos.

Among the potential gambling zones are the spa town of Bath, the retirement mecca of Eastbourne and the cathedral cities of Exeter and York. The Home Office also plans to allow slot machines with unlimited stakes and pay- outs, similar to the ones in the United States that spew out buckets of dollars. At present the jackpot limit is pounds 250.

But despite admitting that the new casinos could lead to more gambling addicts, the Government is refusing to fund a new national group to help those affected.

The new measures are part of the Home Office's gambling deregulation proposals, which include the promotion and expansion of casinos. The Home Office published a consultation paper on the issue in February, but since then a number of local authorities have expressed a desire to add casinos to their list of tourist attractions.

Several councils in the Docklands area of east London, which includes the Canary Wharf development, have asked to be included. If they obtained permission many gambling houses could be built by the Thames. Similarly, Harrogate and York, which have been added to the proposed "permitted area" list for casinos, could link up with Leeds to form a northern gambling triangle.

Seven towns which cater for more than 5,000 conference delegates have been added to the Home Office's original list of potential sites.

The additional conference-town locations are Bath, Eastbourne, Exeter, Harrogate, Norwich, Telford, and York.

There are already proposals for Gloucester, Oxford, Hastings, Ipswich, Swindon, Dartford, Redbridge, Slough, Folkestone, Morecambe and Weymouth. The local authorities in Croydon and Peterborough, which were also on the original list, have lodged objections with the Home Office, which is now re-considering those sites.

Announcing the proposals yesterday, Timothy Kirkhope, the Home Office minister, insisted that the Government did not want to emulate Las Vegas or Atlantic City, where dozens of casinos are crammed together to form long gambling strips. "We don't think that approach would work and we are not going to encourage it," he said.

Proposals for the existing 119 casinos in England and Wales made by the Home Office include allowing the owners to advertise their facilities in regional newspapers and magazines and allowing casinos to have up to three slot machines per gaming table. That would let the largest casino in London have 100. It is also proposed that members of a casino could have access to other clubs in the same group and that membership could be arranged by post.

The Home Office will carry out further consultation up to the end of January. Mr Kirkhope said it was "conceivable" that the measures could be in place before a May general election, but that seems unlikely.

Mr Kirkhope confirmed that the Government will not provide any new money to fund groups that help gambling addicts. A charity called the National Association for Gambling Care, Educational Resources and Training hopes to open in a few months in response to the rising number of gambling- related problems. Paul Bellringer, a founder of the organisation, said: "With the opening up of gambling in this country there are more people who have got into problems and the need for treatment and training is greater than ever before."