Does Britain need 24-hour slot machines? There must be better things to do at 3am.
Gambling arcades that never close are spreading across the country. I’m not against having a flutter, but seriously ...Iwas in the West Midlands early one morning this week when I got a message from an Irish friend in Abu Dhabi. It was a link to a story that had shocked him – about the proliferation of 24-hour high street gambling arcades in parts of Britain.
This friend is so into horse racing that when he starts banging on about it, I can understand hardly a word he says. In fact, I’d get more sense from the neighing of one of his horses. And obviously he’s no stranger to the business of betting. He likes a flutter. My point is that if he is shocked at the number of 24-hour high street gambling arcades, then so am I.
It was 7.30am when I glanced at this article while I was walking up a quiet high street. It was then I saw that I was passing a branch of one of these arcades, which I’d surely passed a thousand times before without really clocking it. It was one of the few places already open, for the very good reason that it never closes. Here it is, open 24/7, for anyone to wander in and get going on the machines whenever it takes their fancy.
Guardian.
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