UK’s Poorest Places and People Being Exploited by Slot Companies
Concerns have been raised about the rise of adult gaming centres in the UK.
Key Facts:
- The number of UK adult gaming centres has steadily increased in recent years
- Many of these are open 24/7 and are in deprived areas
- There have been calls to give councils more powers to stop more AGCs opening
Companies that own adult gaming centres (AGCs), venues that primarily offer slot machines, have been targeting some of the poorest neighbourhoods in Britain. The funds they’ve generated from slot machine gambling have gone to various corporations owned by billionaires and a Wall Street fund using an offshore lending structure.
Since 2022, the number of AGCs in the UK has increased by 7%. Two key factors have enabled this: relaxed licensing laws and rather favourable planning policies. Many of the AGCs are open every hour of the day.
An investigation by The Guardian has found that slot machine shops (another name for adult gaming centres) tend to be more concentrated in poorer areas of the country. This has resulted in politicians calling for councils to have more power to prevent such venues from opening.
Details of the Investigation
The Guardian’s investigation looked at 1,452 AGCs throughout the UK and found that roughly a third of them were in the poorest 10% of neighbourhoods. It also revealed that half of the customers who played at AGCs lived in the poorest 20%.
There were 14 local authorities, home to 1.7 million people, that didn’t have a single slot machine shop. Of these, 13 are among the UK’s 50% richest council areas; eight of them are in the top 20%. Many AGCs that have opened recently are in deprived areas.
In the last year for which figures are available, AGCs took more than £530 million from gamblers. It’s worth mentioning that people can spend no more than £2 per spin and the biggest jackpot anyone can win is £500.
Reactions to the Findings
Quite a few politicians have reacted to The Guardian’s investigation and its results. The general consensus is that AGCs risk exploiting vulnerable people, especially since many of them are always open. There’s also the fact that slot machines are said to be particularly addictive.
One of the politicians who has spoken about the investigation is Andy Burnham, who is the mayor of Greater Manchester. He’s said the following about what The Guardian has found:
It’s time we were honest about what [AGCs] really are. It’s unacceptable that councils have so little power to regulate them despite repeated concerns from charities and local residents.– Andy Burnham, Greater Manchester Mayor Comments on AGC Investigation, The Guardian
He’s also said that AGCs should be legally reclassified and that councils should be given more powers when it comes to licensing arrangements and provision. Lastly, he thinks the operators of AGCs should be held accountable for the problems the venues can cause.
Someone else who’s commented on the investigation is Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones, who is NHS England’s national clinical adviser on gambling harms. She had this to say:
Slot machine venues, particularly those open 24/7, deploy addictive products to keep vulnerable people playing for hours on end, against their own interests. The Guardian’s findings indicate that the result of this is simply to channel funds from the pockets of the poorest into the pockets of the richest– Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones, NHS England Gambling Harms Adviser Comments on AGC Investigation, The Guardian
She also mentioned that a record number of people whose lives have effectively been destroyed by gambling are being supported by the NHS in one way or another. There are currently 15 clinics specialising in gambling harms in operation throughout England.
Information About AGC Operators
Admiral Slots is the largest operator of AGCs in the UK. It’s a division of Novomatic, which is a global gaming company owned by Johann Graf, an Austrian billionaire. There are currently 346 AGCs owned by Admiral Slots throughout the UK, some of which are bingo halls.
Its holding company in the UK, Novomatic UK, paid its Austrian parent company no less than £82 million in dividends over the last two years. In this same time period, it gave its highest-paid director at least £4 million in a combination of salary and bonuses.
Merkur, which operates 262 UK AGCs and is Admiral Slots’ biggest rival, is owned by the Gauselman family of Germany. Its patriarch is billionaire Paul Gauselmann, who has a wealth of approximately £1.9 billion. Merkur has opened more than 100 AGCs since 2020.
