Sometimes when you’re on holidays you do the strangest things. I’m not talking about watersports or visiting tourist attractions that are a little bit out of the way, I mean things that are totally alien to your surroundings. On a recent holiday to the island of Koh Samui in Thailand I was sitting on a banana lounge on the beach that belonged to our resort, Bo Phut resort and spa, and had my iPad with me. It was a glorious day, cloudless, warm and the sea almost lapping at my toes. My partner, Sarah, was somewhere back in our room sorting out some close to wash.

I really should have been looking at things online to see what adventure we could book on the island. There were elephant rides, waterfalls, a local zoo, a crocodile park, to say nothing of all the local shops and restaurants that were available to us. I could see people paragliding and zipping about on jet skis, enjoying everything this beautiful island had to offer. And what was I doing? I had stumbled onto a UK-based casino gaming site. I don’t know what it is about these sites but they are always cleverly set up and can get you in within seconds.

Anyway, Sarah came out and could obviously hear the jingle jangle and whirring of wheels on the slot machines and lots of yelling and cheering and accompanying music. She asked me what the hell I was doing? I mean come on, we are on a beach in another country and I am playing virtual reality in a UK casino. She said I need to get real…her words.

When you think about, it the evolution of these casino sites has been unbelievable. While it’s been said that these virtual casinos or Internet casinos are online versions of the traditional bricks and mortar establishments, they actually offer slightly higher odds then you would get on a land-based casino. That’s comforting to know, in a way. It can be a bit strange losing money or making money online with a bit of gambling but not actually seeing the cash change hands.

Not everybody loses playing online either. The BBC published the story recently about a soldier who had served in Afghanistan winning over £13million with just a 25p bet. It broke all records for online wins but shows you that winning online is legitimately possible. That amount of money is beyond all dreams, that’s for sure. Most people say that don’t really know what they will do if they won that amount of money. I do! More than likely I would buy one of these beach resorts on a tropical island somewhere like this and do absolutely nothing. Maybe invites friends and relatives to join me for holidays, my treat. Well, maybe not relatives! When I told Sarah about the big winner she was a little more mollified about me idling away my beach time but I got her point and went for a swim.