Slot machine firms target UK’s poorest areas and channel funds to billionaires

27 comments

1. > “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.”

   There are fun ways to gamble, but slot machines are not one of them. They exist to transfer wealth from people with little awareness of what the machine is to the wealthy.

2. All for banning these horrible machines. That graph showing how they target the most deprived areas shows you all you need to know. They prey on the most vulnerable to make their profits

3. Same would go for betting shops. The more deprived a town is, the more of them there are on the otherwise dead high streets.

4. Confirming what I have noticed and complained about for years.

   Utter leaches

5. Fucking pathetic man.

   Do these billionaires have any sense of morality. Fuck me. I can’t even litter without feeling bad and these cunts think it’s okay to put machines up in the poorest areas of the UK

6. I work with a lot of foreign businesses and spend a good deal of time hosting their reps on visits here. It comes up every single bloody time that they are shocked by how omnipresent gambling seems to be here, that you never seem to be more than 5 minutes from a games machine or bet shop.

   Many many years ago I also used to work for William Hill so have seen the factory side first-hand. I don’t think most of the public appreciate how insanely destructive a proper gambling addiction can be for some people. Worse than any drug I’ve seen. The sheer level of mental manipulation that goes on, I have seen people properly broken to a point where they cannot help but see going to place some bets almost like as a kind of work with an expected return, rather than a game where you immediately part with any money you put in and take the winnings as a nice bonus.

7. I agree that these machines should go the way of the Dodo, especially after working in a bingo hall and seeing too many older people pumping all their money in for nothing more than a small serotonin boost.

   However, I do miss the cheap old school ones that every chippy used to have. Spending a quid while waiting for your food was always fun.

8. Reddit targets the most deprived people and channels funds to billionaires too so I hope that’s next on the chopping block

9. – target poorest areas, exploiting the poor
   – channel funds to mega rich
   – donate to players in a politics dominated by ideas of ‘the left behind’ and ‘the elites mocking the poor’
   – repeat

10. Greggbrooks Hill & Spoons

    Get there for 9am: Tea & Coffee

    10am – Few games and races where you give away £200

    12 noon – Couple of pastries and scratch cards

    1pm – Murder She Wrote

    1:40pm – Loose Women

    2pm – Few pints to drown sorrows

11. Bookies are empty compared to what they used to be . It’s just old men putting on small horse/dog bets . Everyone’s gone online . I can’t see them even being open much longer . Why pay some one to sit in an empty bookmakers and pay rent when you can fleece everyone online ?

12. Absolutely disgusting. It’s the same as the bookies that pop up in low income areas. I drove past a bookies that is literally in the bottom floor of a high rise flat in a dirt poor area. They’re preying on people and it needs to stop.

13. I’d happily ban slot machines but the Guardian should be ashamed of the clickbait headline about billionaires.

    Billionaires own companies. Who’d have thought it?

    What next? Don’t let granny take her cancer pills because billionaires own Big Pharma. Don’t eat because billionaires own supermarkets. Don’t downvote because billionaires own reddit.

14. They have done nothing to stop the addictive nature of these games. A few years ago they blocked £50 spins on £500 Jackpot machines. The exact same games exist today but with £2 a spin Ultra spins. So now the same game drops in the old £50 game once every 25 spins or there about. Nothing had changed

15. The casino experience is right. Walk in and lose and your money.

16. It’s disgusting. We went to Blue Haven: Dolphin site. The main building has a corridor that connects you to every other amenitie. This corridor is FULL TO BURSTING with slot machines and other shite. It’s all done by design. Horrible

17. Everyday they have a few pints in the spoons and then spend the rest of the day on FOBTs.

18. Well yeah – rich people are rich because they don’t waste their money on these machines so there would be no point in putting them in those types of areas. Poorer people however will tend to gamble more.

    Its a disgusting business practice thta works unfortunately.

19. Unpopular opinion: adults losing money on slot machines made a conscious choice to play and take the risk.

    As a society, we need to protect those who are vulnerable due to mental illness…but those who are dumb/ignorant and trust Lady Luck don’t need protection.

20. Gambling is just an additional tax on people who are shit at maths. Always has been, always will be.

21. The machines are preprogrammed to payout a small percentage of the money they take in. The gambler has such a low probability of winning. They really do feed off the vulnerable.

22. Gambling addicts live in poor areas because they become poor

23. Gambling, like lottery tickets, are a tax on poor people/the less educated. Ban them already. They’re nothing but a leech on society.

24. Gambling is one of those issues that presents a problem for liberal democracy. Are certain people so fundamentally incapable of making rational decisions (or, equivalently, are their utility functions so destructive) that we need to illegalise certain behaviours? And if so, why do we trust those people to govern us?

25. What would be the reaction if slot machines were treated like the national lottery, with most of the profits going to charities?

26. I spent £104,000 to win £106,000 on a slot site before they stopped me out of “concern”.

    Now, I was playing with their money most of the time- aside from my initial £40 deposit -I hit the weirdest jackpot streaks and chasing the dragon I repeatedly lost and won back most of the money.

    They also teleported £800 out of my balance when I bet £5 on a spin and won.

    Wizardslots is dodgy AF. Just sharing an experience I had with them.

    Spent the profit on an engagement ring for my girlfriend- haven’t gambled since 2023- just show some self restraint.

27. It’s a great strategy to get the money of people who don’t pay as much of the taxpayer funds that are given out to needy struggling rich people to stop them from laying everybody off while increasing their bonuses and shareholder payouts.

Comments are closed.