Slot machine shops pay staff based on gamblers’ losses

Some high street slot machine shops, which have increased in recent years, pay staff bonuses linked to revenue from gamblers’ losses.

The Guardian reports that shops in the Merkur chain offer staff bonuses of up to 80% of their annual salary. These bonuses are assessed on various criteria, the top being ‘net revenues’, which are takings from the machines and losses for those who play them.

Adult Gaming Centres, or AGCs. have grown to a network of around 1,400 shops across the country. Many of the shops are open 24 hours a day and are focused in more economically deprived areas.

For the owners of such chains, it is a very profitable business model. German-owned chain Merkur posted a profit in 2024 of £15 million. Stakes at the slot machines are set at £2 every 1.5 seconds.

Slot machines of the type used in AGCs have been shown to be more addictive than other forms of gambling and betting. While the companies have responsibilities to promote safer gambling – which Merkur say are included in the bonus scheme – a former employee said “Staff are not inclined to break the game with a customer that is losing a lot of money because they think that will add to the income.”

MPs from different political parties have raised concerns about the issue. Conservative Iain Duncan-Smith said the bonuses looked like “an incentive not to intervene.” Labour’s Dawn Butler commented: “This bonus structure should immediately be changed. It also begs a question as to why the Gambling Commission allows these practices by AGCs in the first place.”

A condition of their licence means that slot machine shops should recommend that customers take a break when losing badly. But as the same former employee observed: “At the end of the day, the company is trying to make profit and for that the customer needs to lose.”