A Bermuda company is setting up an online gambling business.

Gaming Ventures International (GVI) has been purchased by Damian Aspinall to operate the business and will be enlarged and renamed Aspinalls Online.

Mr. Aspinall is the son of the late John Aspinall, a well-known casino owner and zoo keeper in the UK. Aged 40, he is already a multi-millionaire through property investments and insists his success was the result of his own efforts and had nothing to do with his father's wealth or name.

The Bermuda Government has an anti-gambling policy and Renee Webb, Minister of Telecommunications and E-Commerce, said: "Under the Electronic Transactions Act it is illegal to operate a gambling website out of Bermuda, but he is not operating it out of the Island and it is legitimate for it to operate where the website is based (currently Grenada).

"He has an investment company in Bermuda and the Bermuda Monetary Authority would have done all their due diligence before he was allowed that.'' Mr. Aspinall said his gambling business is growing at a rate of 50 percent per annum. Last year it recorded, for companies just purchased, about $4.9 million pretax profits from a $15 million turnover. He plans to take the business to the stock market in a deal worth around $63 million.

He said: "This will be the first profitable Internet company to float in the UK. Apart from porn, gambling is the only business model that appears to be working on the Internet.'' Some 224.1 million shares will issued, worth a total of about $47 million, to acquire GVI and a further 33.3 million to raise $7 million of working capital.

GVI last month bought the C3i group, the business that showed $4.9 million profit, which has two online casinos operating.

Aspinall gambling company "With a lot of these online gambling guys you don't know whether you're going to get paid, whether the odds are fair or if your credit card details are going to be nicked. The Aspinalls have been around for 40 years (in gambling) and people trust the name,''said Mr. Aspinall.

Mr. Aspinall is definitely following in his father's footsteps by deciding to go for a flotation. Mr. Aspinall Sr. and his business partner, Sir James Goldsmith the international financier, bought their London casino to the market for a value of about $84 million in 1983. One of the online casinos recently purchased by Mr. Aspinall is Astra Casino. On its home page it says: "Welcome to Astra Casino, the future of online gambling. Today is your LUCKY DAY!! The stars have guided your path to Astra Casino, the casino of good fortune!! We pride ourselves on having the best and most advanced online casino games in the universe. Earth license to operate is provided by the Sovereign Nation of Grenada.'' Games can be played for free and for real money and include: blackjack; roulette; cyberstud poker; craps; bacarrat; keno; poker; and slots. Many of these are also broken down into different versions of the games.

If you are to play for real money you must first register with the casino and purchase credits using the casino's software. It reads: "Simply go to the bank button on the screen, register a credit card using the Add Credit Card option, then follow the Purchase prompt and enter the amount you wish to buy on that credit card.'' How easy it is: Gambling sites are easily accessible on the WWW.