Addicts and staff on slot machines that can ruin lives

Sam Badcock was 23 when he lost £100 - a birthday gift from his brother - on a gambling machine.

- Rob Davies

"I sprinted back to my room, grabbed the rest of the money and sprinted back to that machine as fast as I could," he said.

At the time Sam was playing £100-a-spin fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTS), which offered digital roulette.

Described as the "crack cocaine of gambling", uproar about their addictive nature led to FOBTS being effectively banned in 2019.

Sam migrated to the immersive graphics and catchy sound effects of £2-a-spin slot machines.

There are almost 30,000 such slot machines in Britain, packed into bingo venues and "adult gaming centres" (AGCS). The stakes may be lower but the opportunity to rack up huge losses remains: slot machines allow a spin every 1.5 seconds, meaning players can feed in hundreds of pounds an hour.

The Guardian has documented how an explosion in slot machines has been fuelled by favourable planning and licensing laws, allowing AGCs to open disproportionately in the poorest areas, whether local people want them or not.

Yesterday, in response to mounting concern, the government announced plans to give local authorities more power to stop "unwanted" gambling premises opening. But, as addicts, shop workers and customers reveal, Pandora's box is already open.

Feeding on desperation and addiction

Louise, 45, is no anti-gambling prohibitionist: she has worked in casinos for decades and plays slot machines regularly. But she feels increasingly queasy about the scenes of human misery unfolding in her local slot machine shop.

She said: "There's this guy ... he begs outside for 2ps and 5ps, then goes in and changes them for 20p so that he can have a single spin." Louise is one of several gambling workers who spoke out about a slice of their industry growing fat on desperation and addiction.