Merkur Slots UK Limited has been ordered to pay a £95,450 fine due to social responsibility failings at one of its retail locations.
Following an investigation from the UK Gambling Commission, Merkur will pay the sum after failing to interact with a customer that gambled from 1.50pm to 6.43pm on 1 November and between 1.28pm on 2 November and 00.57am on 3 November.
This customer lost a total of £1,981 between those dates at Merkur’s adult gaming centre in Stockport, which has been seen as a breach of the UKGC’s Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP).
Andrew Rhodes, UKGC CEO, commented on the action, stating: “This was a clearcut 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.”
The premises were in breach of LCCP regulations, which state that premises-based businesses such as Merkur are obligated to interact with customers to minimise the risk of customers experiencing gambling harm.
Rhodes continued: “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.”
Commission officials have acknowledged that Merkur has co-operated with the UKGC throughout the investigation, while the company had also attributed the failures to premises staff ‘not implementing policies and procedures effectively’.
According to the UKGC, Merkur has taken immediate action to address this issue at its Stockport adult gaming centre.
Retail reform
It comes as part of the continued efforts from the UKGC to implement a safer environment for gambling at retail locations, having recently launched a new consultation to focus on gaming machine technical standards and their related testing strategy.
Running for 16 weeks from 29 January until 20 May, this is the UKGC’s third consultation as part of its implementation of the proposals from the 2023 Gambling Act Review White Paper.
Tim Miller, Executive Director for Research and Policy at the UKGC, stated: “The White Paper sets out that a top priority is ensuring that gambling happens safely. We share this commitment and today’s consultation proposes how we could implement gaming machine changes in the land-based sector.”
Proposals covered in this consultation include plans to introduce five new standards, a licence condition and a social responsibility code provision “designed to support and empower consumers to use gaming machines safely at every stage of the customer journey”.
