Merkur Slots Complaints Abundant as Company Fined £100,000
High Street slot machine operator Merkur Slots has been fined almost £100,000 by the Great British Gambling Commission over social responsibility failures.
Wendy Hughes, then 64, lost nearly £2,000 in the Stockport branch of Merkur Slots UK over the course of two spells lasting 16 hours in November 2023, months after she was diagnosed with lung cancer.
The Commission said the operator “failed to interact with the customer” when they gambled for almost five hours – from 1.50pm to 6.43pm – on November 1, 2023.
The failures breached the regulator’s Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP) which implores land-based premises to “interact with customers in a way which minimises the risk of customers experiencing harms associated with gambling.”
Merkur Slots has agreed to pay the £95,450 fine.
Andrew Rhodes, Gambling Commission CEO, said: “This was a clear-cut case of an operator failing to follow rules aimed at keeping consumers safe from harm. “In recent years there have been a number of cases of online gambling businesses failing to meet their social responsibility obligations - but this investigation shows that land-based operators also need to make sure they are minimising the risk to customers experiencing harms associated with gambling.
“All operators should make sure that not only do they have policies and procedures aimed at preventing harm in place, but also that staff are effectively trained to follow and implement them.”
Merkur Slots said: "We acknowledge the Gambling Commission’s findings and have fully cooperated with their investigation. The Commission noted that we had policies and procedures in place and that the failure was due to premises staff not implementing our policies and procedures effectively.
"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.
"We remain committed to providing a safe and responsible gaming experience for all our customers."
Gambling911.com has uncovered numerous recent complaints against this company on TrustPilot.
Granted a number of the complaints involved rude customer service, but there were also these pertaining to the actual machines:
"Really worst slot machines in planet spent 600 hundred on 2pound spins got 1pound back the % defo not right for payout then asked them deal with it and get somebody look into then u wait then they ask me when it was joke."
"I foolishly went back in the other day after losing some money in a bookies, after saying i am never stepping foot in a Merkur again, and what a mistake that was, i lost another £400, thinking after all these recent complaints on here that they might have adjusted the RTP to regulation standards......hahahaha not a chance have they, they just destroy the poor punter here time and time again, and i actually won my money back in the previous bookies and raised it from £150 to £650, so, as far as i'm concerned, the proof is in the pudding, the bookies will let the punter win so they come back, these guys are total fools, nobody is gonna want to get massacred 9/10 or 10/10 times, they will just go elsewhere like i did and have a MUCH MUCH MUCH better chance of winning or even playing relatively fairly !!!"
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