Slot machine companies are targeting Britain’s poorest neighbourhoods and channelling the proceeds to billionaire-owned overseas corporations and a Wall Street fund that uses an offshore lending structure, the Guardian can reveal.
The number of slot machine shops has risen by 7% since 2022, as companies-friendly planning and licensing laws flood Britain’s high streets with new “adult gaming centres” (AGCs), most of which are open 24 hours a day.
Venues are disproportionately concentrated in Britain’s most-deprived areas, according to analysis by the Guardian, prompting concern from a leading addiction expert and calls from politicians – including Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester – for councils to be given powers to stop new sites opening.
