Darlington'S leisure and fitness entrepreneur, Duncan Bannatyne, is now planning to set up a chain of "people's casinos".

The millionaire businessman has earmarked an unnamed site in the North-East and another in Scotland for his first gambling clubs. He wants to target the "multiplex" market, enticing customers away from cinemas and pizza restaurants.

He said this week he planned to invest £10m of his own money and use a £15m bank facility, enough for five clubs if the initial project is a success.

Bannatyne's Casinos will follow hot on the heels of his fitness empire, which has made him the owner of Britain's biggest independently-owned health club company.

A Government White Paper proposes the biggest shake-up of the laws covering the gaming industry in living memory. It advocates casinos being built anywhere, rather than in designated areas. They will be allowed to advertise, membership rules will be abolished and clubs will be allowed to serve drinks on the gaming floor.

Mr Bannatyne has also revealed that he is now one of New Labour's benefactors. He gave it £6,000 last August - before the gaming White Paper was published. It was the first time he had given to any political party.

This month he gave £10,000 to the party and he has pledged to donate that amount each year until the next General Election. But he denied having talked with Labour about the new gaming laws.

"I haven't had a discussion with anyone about it, " he stated. "It hasn't come up."

He is still good friends with former Darlington Conservative MP, Michael Fallon, with whom he founded his nursery school business, Just Learning. Mr Bannatyne sold his stake in that for £22m last December.

He is also friendly with Alan Milburn, the town's present MP and Health Secretary, who is a member of one of his clubs.

Now a staunch Labour supporter, he added: "Well, there's really only one party, isn't there?"

It is a U-turn for the high-profile businessman, who in the Eighties followed the Thatcher ethos of spotting market opportunities under deregulation.

His big break came when he founded Quality Care Homes with a £20,000 investment. Ten years later he sold the company, pocketing £26m.

His fortune is now estimated at £90m