The 24 hour wait is still required however there are a lot of things you can do to shorten the wait. Most of them do not require a membership fee (some still do, and some of those are pricey).

You can fill out the application online at a few of the casinos and then when you show up you are registered. And the ones that have multiple casinos (like Grosvenors) will forward your application to another of their casinos. As long as you give them the 24 hours then you can go to the one you just joined. So for example, join the Vic and then have the front-desk send your app to the Grosvenors in Reading (for example). The next day you can go to Reading.