Latest news with #Merkur
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
'Gambling addiction cost my sick mum thousands'
The daughter of a woman who became addicted to slot machines and lost thousands while undergoing cancer treatment is calling on the government to introduce tougher controls. Jackie Olden said her late mother Wendy Hughes got hooked after working at a bookmakers where she was asked to play the machines on a free demonstration mode to help drum up customer interest. She said it prompted Ms Hughes, who died from cancer in 2024 at the age of 64, to begin playing slots in her own time before spiralling into debt. Ms Olden said: "My mum was never someone who would have gambled before this, she was absolutely dedicated to her family." She said her mother, a widow, had worked hard to make ends meet while raising her three children in Stockport, Greater Manchester. "She had her own house and some money saved but all of that just went and it went really, really, really quickly," Ms Olden said. Ms Hughes's children intervened in an attempt to get her excluded from gambling outlets but she relapsed years later after discovering 24-hour adult gaming centres. Ms Olden said: "When I found out, I was absolutely flabbergasted to hear that there are 24-hour slot machine places on almost every high street in the UK. "In Stockport, where I live, there are three of them." Ms Hughes continued gambling after being diagnosed with cancer in April 2023 and became progressively more unwell. In November of the same year, she lost almost £2,000 pounds in two sessions at the Merkur slots venue in Stockport. The German company was fined £95,450 earlier this year by the Gambling Commission following a complaint by Ms Hughes, which found the operator failed "to follow rules aimed at keeping consumers safe from harm". In a bid to protect others, Ms Olden earlier delivered a petition with more than 40,000 signatures to Downing Street, calling on the government to give local government stronger powers to refuse licences for gambling venues where concerns are raised. She said: "I'm not an anti-gambling purist or someone who wants to tell people what to do, but these places are so dangerous. "The products in there are known to be the most harmful, the most addictive and I just think we need to regulate them way more tightly." Merkur said the the failure was "due to premises staff not implementing our policies and procedures effectively". They continued: "Customer welfare is our priority and we have conducted a thorough internal review. "As a result, we have strengthened training for our 1,840 venue-based staff as well as enhancing reporting procedures to ensure our high standards are upheld." Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230. Slot machines to go cashless as debit cards allowed
BBC News
2 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
'Gambling addiction cost my sick mum thousands'
The daughter of a woman who became addicted to slot machines and lost thousands while undergoing cancer treatment is calling on the government to introduce tougher controls. Jackie Olden said her late mother Wendy Hughes got hooked after working at a bookmakers where she was asked to play the machines on a free demonstration mode to help drum up customer said it prompted Ms Hughes, who died from cancer in 2024 at the age of 64, to begin playing slots in her own time before spiralling into debt. Ms Olden said: "My mum was never someone who would have gambled before this, she was absolutely dedicated to her family." She said her mother, a widow, had worked hard to make ends meet while raising her three children in Stockport, Greater Manchester. "She had her own house and some money saved but all of that just went and it went really, really, really quickly," Ms Olden said. Ms Hughes's children intervened in an attempt to get her excluded from gambling outlets but she relapsed years later after discovering 24-hour adult gaming Olden said: "When I found out, I was absolutely flabbergasted to hear that there are 24-hour slot machine places on almost every high street in the UK. "In Stockport, where I live, there are three of them."Ms Hughes continued gambling after being diagnosed with cancer in April 2023 and became progressively more unwell. In November of the same year, she lost almost £2,000 pounds in two sessions at the Merkur slots venue in German company was fined £95,450 earlier this year by the Gambling Commission following a complaint by Ms Hughes, which found the operator failed "to follow rules aimed at keeping consumers safe from harm". In a bid to protect others, Ms Olden earlier delivered a petition with more than 40,000 signatures to Downing Street, calling on the government to give local government stronger powers to refuse licences for gambling venues where concerns are raised. She said: "I'm not an anti-gambling purist or someone who wants to tell people what to do, but these places are so dangerous."The products in there are known to be the most harmful, the most addictive and I just think we need to regulate them way more tightly."Merkur said the the failure was "due to premises staff not implementing our policies and procedures effectively". They continued: "Customer welfare is our priority and we have conducted a thorough internal review."As a result, we have strengthened training for our 1,840 venue-based staff as well as enhancing reporting procedures to ensure our high standards are upheld." Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
The Guardian
18-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Slot machine firms target UK's poorest areas and channel funds to billionaires
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 to 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. Of 1,452 AGCs analysed, a third were in the poorest 10% of British neighbourhoods, while more than half served customers in the most-deprived 20%. Figures show that the pattern of targeting the least well-off areas continued during a recent surge of new shop openings, as market leaders Admiral and Merkur expanded their high street footprint. Seaside towns, many of which are economically deprived and also known for their amusement arcades, feature heavily among the areas with the highest concentration of AGCs, topped by Great Yarmouth. But other coastal areas that do not feature resorts are also heavily represented. Between them, Middlesbrough and Hull – the fourth and fifth most-deprived local councils – had 28 AGCs, according to the analysis, serving 424,592 people. In contrast, 14 local authorities, in which 1.7 million people live, don't have a single AGC. All but one of them are in the top 50% wealthiest council areas and eight are in the top 20%. MPs and addiction experts raised concerns that the spread of shops offering 24-hour access to slot machines – consistently ranked among the most-addictive gambling products in health surveys – risked exploiting vulnerable people. Prof Henrietta Bowden-Jones, the national clinical adviser on gambling harms at NHS England, said: '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. This comes as the NHS is supporting record numbers who have had their lives destroyed by gambling, with 15 clinics now up and running across England.' AGCs, which feature machines offering spins of up to £2 and jackpots of up to £500, took more than £530m from gamblers in the last year for which figures are available. Burnham said: 'It's time we were honest about what [AGCs] really are,.' He warned that AGCs were 'targeting some of the most vulnerable in our communities'. 'It's unacceptable that councils have so little power to regulate them despite repeated concerns from charities and local residents. 'We must reclassify these venues in law, give local authorities stronger licensing powers, and hold operators accountable.' The Labour MP Beccy Cooper backed calls from Burnham and a group of more than 30 councils – led by Brent in north-west London – for councils to be given more powers to prevent new AGCs opening. Cooper said she was concerned 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'. The UK's largest AGC operator, Admiral Slots, is a UK division of Novomatic, a global gaming corporation owned by the Austrian billionaire Johann Graf, who is worth $10.2bn (£7.7bn), according to Forbes. It has 346 venues in the UK, including bingo halls that also offer slot machines. Its UK holding company, Novomatic UK, has awarded its highest-paid director more than £4m in salary and bonuses over the past two years for which accounts are available and paid its Austrian parent company £82m in dividends. Germany's Gauselmann family, whose patriarch Paul Gauselmann is worth $2.6bn, according to Forbes, owns Admiral's biggest rival, Merkur, which has 262 shops. Merkur was fined almost £100,000 by the gambling regulator earlier this year, after the Guardian revealed how staff allegedly exploited a vulnerable cancer patient. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion Burnham said he had been 'shocked' by the case. 'I've written to ministers to raise her case and lobby for basic changes that could make a huge difference in protecting everyone from the dangers of these places,' he added. The parent company of Merkur's UK operation reported a loss of £2m on revenues of £200m last year, as it spent money on an expansion plan that has brought more than 100 new shops to the high street since 2020. Private equity companies also rank among the largest slot machine owners. Investors in a 'tactical value' fund, run by the Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley, own the 39-strong Game Nation chain of slot machine shops. City Gaming, the UK business that houses Game Nation, is funded by a £118m loan from NHTV Cherry Holding LLC, managed by a Morgan Stanley fund, Companies House filings show. City Gaming paid £12.6m in interest on the loan to NHTV, which is based in the Cayman Islands, which does not charge corporation tax. Britain's largest motorway service station company, Moto Hospitality, also has 74 AGC licences. It is owned by a giant £86bn pension scheme, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), in partnership with the private equity group CVC Capital Partners. Motorway service station slot venues were not included in the Guardian's analysis of where AGCs are located. A spokesperson for the arcades trade body, Bacta, said its members employed 9,000 people in the UK and paid £200m a year in tax. 'Social responsibility remains a cornerstone of Bacta members' approach to their operations and businesses,' they added. 'Their priority is to offer safe, enjoyable fun to the many different walks of life that enjoy playing slots in a safe and responsible way.' Merkur and Admiral did not return a request for comment. USS, CVC and Morgan Stanley declined to comment. The Guardian approached Game Nation for comment via Morgan Stanley.
The Guardian
04-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Spin doctors: gambling firms adopt hard tactics to flood towns with 24hr slot machines
It is almost 2am in Peterborough and a handful of punters are wordlessly feeding their money into the machines at Merkur Slots. A fragment of a song, the lyric 'nothing to lose', drifts through the shop as their funds rapidly evaporate. Closing time is fast approaching, but that does not mean the end of the gambling. Five minutes' walk down Lincoln Road, a near-deserted street lit by the neon signs of shuttered vape shops and fast food outlets, sit two more Merkurs, this time with 24-hour licences. Even in the small hours, many of the roughly 20 machines in each shop are doing a brisk trade. Staff provide regular doses of caffeine and sugar, ferrying free coffee, chocolate bars and Haribo sweets to customers as they play their way through games such as Shaun the Leprechaun and Rainbow Riches. Some Merkur venues even have compact pizza ovens, to keep the punters playing. Zoom out to national level and this picture – of towns and cities pockmarked by 24/7 slot shops – is replicated time and again. Welcome to the business of 'adult gaming centres' (AGCs) – the under-scrutinised network of slot machine arcades that are expanding rapidly on Britain's high streets, even as their more traditional cousins, bookmakers, retreat. In Great Britain, the number of AGCs rose by 7% to 1,451 between 2022 and 2024, figures from the Gambling Commission show, reversing a longer-term decline since 2010, as gambling shifted online. Merkur alone has opened 100 new venues since 2020 and now has more than 230 in the UK, each packed with machines of varying types. Including Merkur's rivals, there are now more than 14,200 £2-a-spin slot machines in Britain, each making £32,600 annually from customers, according to Gambling Commission figures. On that basis, every terminal is sucking a sum close to Peterborough's average salary out of the fragile local economy. That adds up to £463m across the country and more than £500m when factoring in less popular £1-a-spin machines too. The AGC renaissance has given addiction professionals cause for alarm. Slot machines, digital and in-person, have consistently been rated among the highest-risk products for problem gambling, including in surveys conducted last year for the Gambling Commission by experts at the University of Glasgow. 'They are designed and built for prolonged play and harm is the inevitable consequence,' says Dr Matt Gaskell, a consultant psychologist and clinical leader at the NHS Northern Gambling Service. 'Increasing their availability on the high street is of massive concern.' Whatever fears public health professionals may express, nobody has been able to stop the AGC juggernaut, at least for the time being. For, as the Guardian reveals today, the industry has deployed a host of highly effective tactics – ranging from legitimate legal firepower to apparent dishonesty – to sweep aside all opposition. The sign above the door at 551 Lincoln Road advertised a Chinese takeaway called the New Golden Dragon, until Merkur decided that three venues in one small city was not enough. Peterborough's newest Merkur received the green light in 2024 after a lengthy planning and licensing approval process that appears to have involved, at the very least, a flexible approach to accuracy. Appearing before a council committee in June 2024, a representative of the company sought to allay any concerns about Merkur's plan to convert the store into an AGC. 'This is not a betting shop,' she told the committee. AGCs, she said, were a very different prospect to betting shops because they were mostly patronised by women, while average stakes were as little as 30p. Nor did they offer, as bookies did, high-octane 'fixed-odds betting terminals' (FOBTs) that allow customers to stake up to £50 a spin. There were, however, problems with that testimony. The maximum FOBT stake hasn't been £50 since 2019, when the government cut it to £2, in line with machines in Merkur shops. That change has helped fuel the AGC boom as punters, deprived of the chance to use high-stakes machines in their local bookmakers, flocked to slot shops instead. Merkur's representative, who the Guardian has chosen not to name, also told councillors that AGCs were places where people came to have 'a game of bingo principally'. This claim, too, appears to be in question. Merkur shops do offer bingo games, typically via iPad-style tablets. But this appears to be part of a tactic commonly used to exploit a weakness in the regulatory system and increase revenues. Under Gambling Commission rules, the number of £2 (category B) machines allowed in a gaming centre is limited to one quarter of the number of their lower-intensity £1-a-spin machines (category C). According to the government's white paper on gambling reform published last year, some companies have found an ingenious way around this. A tablet technically counts as a category C machine. This means that placing a rack of tablets in a corner allows companies to pack the remainder of the shop with more higher-stakes machines. In multiple visits to Merkur shops, the Guardian has never seen a bingo tablet in use. Merkur says its representative's comments to Peterborough's licensing committee have been 'taken out of context', without explaining how. A spokesperson adds: '[The company] categorically denies making any dishonest or deliberately misleading representations to any local authority planning or licensing committee.' One former Merkur staff member says they believe the company has also sometimes been less than forthcoming with the local authorities about criminal damage in its shops, mindful of future planning and licensing battles. The former employee, who asked not to be named, says Merkur spends huge sums each year on replacing or repairing machines damaged by customers who lose their temper after 'playing to extinction' – the industry term for losing all your money. 'They don't go after anyone for criminal damage even though it costs a fortune. When they apply for licences, they want to be able to stand up and say their sites are trouble free,' the former employee says. A Merkur spokesperson says it is 'entirely untrue that Merker has a policy or practice of avoiding the reporting of criminal damage to the police. Such a suggestion is both inaccurate and unfair.' In fact, Merkur does not need to burnish the image of its shops, for it also has the entire planning and licensing system on its side. Like Peterborough, the London borough of Brent is saturated with slot shops, including seven within a few hundred metres of one another. Like Peterborough, it also has relatively high levels of economic deprivation. Around Harlesden and Kensal Green ward, which includes some of Brent's 'trouble spots', more and more slot shops have sprung up, even in the face of furious objections from local residents. On the latest one, residents have daubed graffiti saying: 'Ban gambling in deprived areas'. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion Councillor Matt Kelcher, the chair of the planning committee, does not condone the defacing of private property but understands the sentiment behind it. 'It's that frustration people have of not being in control of their neighbourhood and their lives. People have no say of what's happening on their own high streets,' he says. Time and again, he says, councillors, dozens of locals and even the police objected to a new AGC, only to be outlasted and outspent by companies with a steely resolve to expand and deep pockets. Merkur is owned by Germany's billionaire Gauselmann gaming dynasty, while its main rival Admiral Slots is part of Austria's Novomatic, providing their UK subsidiaries with serious financial heft. 'There's one of us objecting to it and then the AGC brings two KCs and a solicitor,' says Kelcher. Analysis of planning documents by the Guardian reveals that Merkur has routinely been able to submit hundreds of pages of supporting documents to under-resourced local councils. These include submissions from leading planning consultants and even reconnaissance reports from a firm of former police officers paid to stake out nearby AGCs and opine on whether they are associated with antisocial behaviour. In the examples seen by the Guardian, the same glowing reports emerge each time. Ultimately, gambling operators have the resources to keep going until they get what they want, says Kelcher. When they meet a particularly resistant local authority, they appeal to central government's Planning Inspectorate. According to a freedom of information request by the Guardian, Merkur and its Cashino brand appealed to the Planning Inspectorate 32 times between October 2020 and June 2024, succeeding in about two-thirds of cases. The licensing system, which focuses on how a business must operate once it has planning permission, is even kinder. Under the Gambling Act 2005, Labour's landmark liberalisation of gambling laws that successive governments have begun to roll back, the Gambling Commission and local authorities must 'aim to permit' gambling, meaning they are legally bound to err on the side of permissiveness. Kelcher's fellow councillor, Mili Patel, says: 'I was in a licensing committee for a Merkur application for three hours. The whole thing becomes a farce because we know it will go through and they know it will go through.' Brent council is at the forefront of a nascent fightback, which now has the backing of 30 local authorities and Greater Manchester's mayor, Andy Burnham. They have put forward a six-step plan including the abolition of the 'aim to permit' mandate and putting AGCs into the same category as betting shops for planning purposes, so that councils can consider the overall volume of gambling activity. So far, the government has made vague noises about giving councils more power over planning decisions. If critics of AGCs are to win further concessions, they will have to point to real evidence of harm in their communities. That evidence is starting to mount. In February, Merkur was fined almost £100,000 by the gambling regulator after the Guardian revealed how staff allegedly exploited a vulnerable cancer patient. Now, sources say, the same Stockport branch is under investigation by the regulator after a customer complained they had deposited almost £9,000, and lost more than £2,000, without staff intervening to check he was in control of his gambling. Part of the complaint alleges that the branch was 'single-staffed', something that high street betting firms typically try to avoid, for the safety of employees and customers. When it came time for that sole employee to cash up, the customer alleges, single staffing meant that he had to be shut inside for security reasons leaving him literally locked in the grip of gambling. Reviews on the employment website Glassdoor by people who said they worked for Merkur repeatedly highlight single staffing as a concern. Merkur has confirmed it is cooperating with a Gambling Commission review of the customer's claims but adds that a full internal inquiry found the allegations are 'inconsistent with the investigation's findings'. Merkur says: 'We take our responsibilities as a licensed operator extremely seriously, particularly in relation to planning compliance, safer gambling, and public safety.' In Peterborough, its shops appear sufficiently well resourced to cope with the steady flow of gamblers who were still there in the small hours, including bouncers poised to snuff out any trouble. Outside one branch, two punters are divided over whether AGCs are doing any harm. Monica, 28, from Lithuania, says it is the 'best place in the world'. 'Everywhere else is closed,' she adds, gesturing unsteadily at the high street. 'Here you can spend your money and have a good time,' she says, although she does admit to having lost £1,300 at the Admiral Slots in the town centre, one of six gambling establishments in a stretch of nine shopfronts. A 51-year-old man, who declines to give his name, disagrees. Merkur is the 'worst' place in the world, he says, adding: 'They make you lose all your money.' Inside, another song serenades punters over the PA: 'I got a feeling that tonight's gonna be a good, good night' goes the lyric, as their credit on the machines steadily counts down to zero.
Business Wire
25-04-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Law Firm Rechtsanwälte Steinhöfel: a German Newspaper Retracts Allegations Referenced in a Judicial Investigation Against Businessman Alisher Usmanov
PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--German newspaper Münchner Merkur has retracted in writing a number of statements about Alisher Usmanov, signing three cease-and-desist orders and deleting 15 articles released March through November 2022. Some of the deleted materials were used by German law enforcement authorities to initiate preliminary investigations against A. Usmanov and constituted a ground for EU sanctions against him and his sister. Münchner Merkur (Merkur) is a German daily newspaper, part of the Münchner Merkur/tz media group and the most read subscription-based publication in Bavaria. А. Usmanov has been repeatedly targeted by Merkur publications, especially after his inclusion in the EU sanctions lists in February 2022. Merkur has now simultaneously signed three cease-and-desist orders to stop unlawful acts, including dozens of false allegations about A. Usmanov and his relatives. Merkur had earlier signed yet another five of such orders. These include claims that A. Usmanov allegedly owns luxury vehicles and real estate acquired 'with the help of a network of sham and offshore companies,' which have allegedly been 'seized' thereafter. Airbus A340 airplane, two helicopters and several cars were named among such assets, along with several villas on Bavarian Lake Tegernsee allegedly acquired by him from 2011 through 2018 through figureheads and sham companies for over EUR 23 mln, as well as real estate on Sardinia, a mansion in British Surrey, 'villas in London,' Croatia and Latvia. In addition, the deleted Merkur articles claimed that A. Usmanov allegedly transferred title to the above property to a trust in favor of his sisters, from whom he then leased it out. That being said, one of the sisters, Gulbakhor Ismailova was named as the owner of the Dilbar yacht. In addition, among Merkur's false reports were allegations that in 2015 A. Usmanov allegedly acquired a multimillion-dollar property in Bavaria 'from a professor at the University of Salzburg' and another one from 'the man from Cologne' in 2016. In the spirit of convoluted detective novels, the German outlet, citing rumors, published reports that A. Usmanov allegedly 'transferred his trust to his sister G. Ismailova and that she, in turn, to her sister Saodat Narzieva,' and that 'valuable artifacts such as alleged Fabergé eggs' had been discovered in Usmanov's 'properties in Bavaria.' All these allegations have been repeatedly refuted in court and out of court. The Merkur outlet was the champion for the intensity of their dissemination in Germany, and later also became the champion for the number of their deletions and signed cease-and-desist orders. In reality, the said properties do not belong to A. Usmanov and are held in irrevocable discretionary trusts. Neither A. Usmanov nor his relatives has any control or ownership interest, with all rights vested in independent trustees. The articles in Merkur were used by German law enforcement authorities to take on preliminary investigations, including for taking such serious investigative actions as searches against A. Usmanov on suspicion of tax evasion and violation of the German Foreign Trade and Payments Act. Investigative material, based among other things on deleted articles, was illegally transferred by the German side to the EU Council, which included it as 'evidence' in the dossier on A. Usmanov and G. Ismailova to justify sanctions against them. For the third year now, the German prosecutor's office has been trying to prove to no avail that A. Usmanov was a tax resident of Germany, evaded the relevant taxes, and violated sanctions restrictions. A. Usmanov's representatives have repeatedly denied these accusations. In November 2024, the Public Prosecutor General's Office in Frankfurt am Main after almost two and a half years of barren searching efforts dropped yet another money laundering investigation against A. Usmanov without finding any evidence to support its accusations.. This was preceded by the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court's recognition of the series of searches conducted as part of the investigation as illegal. Since 2023, A. Usmanov's lawyers have secured 9 orders and injunctions against media outlets which attributed to A. Usmanov real estate in Germany and other property actually owned by the independent trustees. Besides, about 40 cease-and-desist orders have been signed. Hundreds of media have deleted or edited their reports. In 2022, the EU Council lifted sanctions on S. Narzieva, and in 2025 – on G. Ismailova. Joachim Steinhöfel, a media lawyer representing A. Usmanov, noted that 'it is highly unusual for an important regional newspaper to delete 15 of its articles for false factual claims after legal action. A journalist who has now completely discredited himself was so enamored of the Russian, rich and guilty narrative that truthful reporting could not be allowed to stand in the way. Alisher Usmanov was the victim of this attack on truth and decency. Journalistic failure is one thing, but the fact that the public prosecutor's office responsible made these grotesque media blunders the basis of its investigation and referred to the deleted newspaper articles discredits the justice system. For a judge to sign a search warrant, as happened in the Usmanov case, and refer to a newspaper article that has now been deleted, is simply ridiculous.'
