Doctors and nurses lined up to condemn Government plans for new casinos today, as Midland health professionals warned gambling made people ill.

A hard-hitting paper in the British Medical Journal warned gambling can "destroy families".

It was written by John Middleton, director of public health at Sandwell Primary Care Trust, and Farid Latif, a senior house officer in paediatrics at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.

Meanwhile, the Royal College of Nurses passed a motion attacking the expansion of casinos at their annual conference in Harrogate. The resolution said nurses believed that "the relaxation in gambling legislation will impact negatively on public health".

The medical professionals were backed by MP Caroline Spelman (Con Meriden), whose constituency could become the site of a new casino.

It includes the NEC, which is hoping to build a new "large" casino with up to 150 fruit machines offering jackpots of £4,000.

The proposals have been delayed because Government plans to liberalise gambling were rejected by the House of Lords earlier this year.

However, Ministers have insisted they will press ahead with the casino expansion later this year.

The doctors warned that problem gambling "can cause marital conflict, child neglect, poor work performance, multiple addictions, stress-related physical ailments, crime, and even suicide."

They continued: "Problem gamblers and pathological gamblers are more likely than others in the general population to have been divorced, had physical and psychological problems, lost a job, been receiving welfare benefits, been declared bankrupt, and been imprisoned."

They added: "Anything that makes the poor people in Britain even poorer, especially if they do not derive benefits in kind, will damage their health, further increasing inequality in health."

Britain has few specialist services available for problem gambling and the demands on such services are likely to increase as a result of relaxed laws, they said.

A second British Medical Journal Article by neurological registrar Sui Wong and Malcolm Steiger, a consultant neurologist at the Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Liverpool, said there were particular risks to people with Parkinson's Disease.

Mrs Spelman said: "I don't advocate gambling and I'm not a fan of casinos.

"I have concerns about the risk to vulnerable people, and I think it is very important to listen to the views of the medical professionals on this.

"Nobody sets out in the morning planning to ruin their life and gamble away far more than they can afford, but it happens.

"People with compulsive obsessive disorder can be at risk.

"The one saving grace of the NEC proposal is that it is out of the way and people would have to make an effort to go there."

But the Department of Health insisted the NHS had the resources to help gambling addicts recover.

A spokeswoman explained: "Anybody with a gambling problem who seeks help from the NHS will be offered support and, if necessary, treatment to help them overcome their addiction.

"Specialised addiction services have a long history of helping people with gambling problems.

"Gamcare, which runs a national telephone helpline and provides face-to-face counselling, is able to refer gambling addicts to NHS services where appropriate."