Poor areas allegedly targeted
A survey is alleging UK slot machine firms are strategically targeting the country’s poorest neighborhoods.
Market leaders such as Admiral and Merkur are accused of setting up slot machine-filled Adult Gaming Centers (AGCs) in the country’s most economically deprived neighborhoods.
over half of the AGCs found in 20% of Britain’s most-deprived areas
According to a Guardian study, over half of the AGCs were found in 20% of Britain’s most-deprived areas, with one-third allegedly in the poorest 10% neighborhoods in the UK.
The report states the number of AGCs have increased by 7% since 2022 and cites “a recent surge” in new venues opening in the UK’s least well-off locations.
The survey named market leaders Admiral and Merkur as chief culprits.
Billionaire gripe
Central to the survey’s main beef is that the slot machine owners target poor areas and “channel the funds to billionaires.”
simply to channel funds”
“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,” stated NHS England’s National Expert Advisor on Gambling Harms, Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones.
The Guardian names Admiral Slots, a Newcastle-based subsidiary of Vienna-headquartered global iGaming corporation Novomatic as one of the lead antagonists.
Novomatic operates 346 AGCs and bingo halls in the UK and is owned by the entrepreneur Professor Johann F. Graf. Forbes states he’s worth $10.2bn. The publication adds further grit to its beef of economic disparity by highlighting Novomatic UK’s awarding an executive director over £4m ($5.3m) in salary and bonuses over the past two years. And paying its Austrian holding firm £82m ($109.2m) in dividends.
The survey also points towards German gambling giant Gauselmann Group, whose UK subsidiary Merkur Slots is Admiral’s main slots rival across the pond with 262 venues.
According to Forbes, Gauselmann patriarch Paul Gauselmann is worth $2.6bn.
Scrutiny increases
No doubt, the German and Austrian gaming giants will not appreciate the negative attention the survey is drawing to them.
The exclusive report cited Labour MP Beccy Cooper calling for laws to give local UK councils more authority to stop AGCs opening.
at the expense of some of our poorest communities”
Cooper aired her concern that AGCs “seem to be clustered in areas of higher deprivation lining the pockets of gambling companies at the expense of some of our poorest communities.”
Bowden-Jones added her grist to the AGC mill. The professor singled out slot machine venues open 24/7 as the worst culprits of using “addictive products to keep vulnerable people playing for hours on end, against their own interests.”
