If you’re casino-trained, especially in London, you’re highly sought-after. You could easily get work on a cruise liner, travelling the world and earning your living at the same time.What’s it like working shifts during the night?During the summer, it’s perfect. You drive home from work with absolutely no traffic, and then go straight out to lie in the garden, have a cup of tea and sunbathe while everyone else is sweating in an office. You can get all your shopping done and run errands during the day. But during the winter it’s more difficult, because there’s less daylight, and working unstructured hours can be hard on your sleep pattern – sometimes, I’ve finished a shift at 4am and been back to the casino at 12pm. You do turn into a bit of a vampire.What’s the career path and salary like?When you apply for a job at a casino, you have to apply to the Gambling Commission for a certificate of approval and be checked by the Criminal Records Bureau, to make sure you have a sound background.After three months training, you would become a trainee for 12 to 18 months, then become a dealer, then move up to become a dealer inspector, watching the dealer Eventually you could become a pit boss, then a manager. Salaries in London casinos are much better than outside London.

In London, the starting salary for a trainee in a casino is at least £15,000, while a manager might earn more than £40,000.Jacqui Terry appears in ‘Showbiz Blackjack’, on Challenge weeknights from Monday, 29 May at 9pm. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell will today seek to counter Labour and Tory claims that his party is “soft on crime” with a speech demanding tougher treatment of serious offenders. In the first of a series of major policy speeches setting out the direction in which he wants to take the party, Sir Menzies will signal a sharp shift in approach to law and order from that of his predecessor Charles Kennedy.
Without criticising Mr Kennedy directly, Sir Menzies will make clear he thinks the former leader was wrong when he said during last year’s election campaign that Ian Huntley should have the vote. Serious offenders like the Soham killer should forfeit all rights to take part in democratic elections, he will say. He will also voice support for the Government’s anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos), call for a new register of violent offenders and demand new controls on foreign prisoners who cannot be deported after release.

And he will say that serious criminals should expect to be kept behind bars for the majority of the sentence handed down by the courts, not released on parole after serving just half of their time. A senior aide last night admitted that, under Charles Kennedy, there had been “ambiguities” in the Lib Dems’ handling of crime that had contributed to a public perception of the party as soft. Sir Menzies was determined to dispel this impression and to make clear that his party’s commitment to human rights and individual liberties would not stop it from being tough on criminals. Speaking to Lib Dem councillors in London today, Sir Menzies will say: “A party which is serious about social justice cannot fail to be serious about preventing crime and enforcing the rules. “I am determined that the Liberal Democrats under my leadership will stand for equality before the law and equality of responsibility under the law.” Crime is a “liberal issue” because “being assaulted, being burgled, being robbed is a violation of the liberty and freedom of the individual”, he will say. During his career as a barrister, he spent four years prosecuting crimes including murder, rape and armed robbery and saw close-up their “devastating” effects on victims. “Those who break their obligations and infringe the rights of others must face the consequences,” he will say.

Sir Menzies will accuse the Government of “mismanagement and inadequacy” for its handling of law and order, accusing Labour of putting more people in prison but then letting them out too early because of over-crowding. He will pledge to reverse the recent introduction of automatic release for prisoners who have served half of their sentence, insisting that parole boards must be given discretion on when an inmate should go free. “Parole should not be an automatic right, parole should be earned,” he will say. Aides said that Sir Menzies was not planning to dump official Lib Dem policy that some prison inmates should be granted the vote, but he was saying that the right should not be extended to those convicted of serious violent or sexual offences “Penalties should go beyond custody,” he will say “People like Ian Huntley should not have the vote.