Staff bonuses at slot machine shops linked to gamblers' losses

High-street slot machine shops are paying staff bonuses linked to how much gamblers lose, the Guardian has learned, prompting condemnation of the "appalling" reward scheme from MPs and campaigners.

- Rob Davies

A network of 1,451 "adult gaming centres" (AGCs), most open 24 hours a day, has spread through the UK in recent years, concentrated in the most economically deprived areas.

Amid booming revenues, German-owned Merkur posted a £15m profit for 2024, while Admiral Slots paid its Austrian owner a £10m dividend last year, according to accounts posted at Companies House this week.

It can now be revealed that the growth of at least one of the sector's leading players has been partly fuelled by incentive schemes that unlock bonuses in return for hitting key targets. At Merkur, these targets include revenues from punters' losses on highly addictive slot machines.

For venue managers at Merkur, the majority of the bonus - worth up to 80% of annual salary - is linked to "controllable profit", according to one internal document.

This measure is partly determined by outgoings on wages and smaller items designed to keep customers playing, such as free food, drinks and "cash giveaways". But the first item on the list of factors contributing to controllable profit is "net revenues". In effect, this means takings from slot machines, which offer stakes of £2 every 1.5 seconds, for a maximum jackpot of £500. The machines have been linked in successive studies to higher rates of addiction than most other gambling formats.

Jackie Olden campaigned for tougher regulations on AGCs after her late mother, who was terminally ill, lost thousands of pounds at a branch of Merkur in Stockport. The company was fined nearly £100,000 earlier this year for social responsibility failings, after reporting by the Guardian.