Merkur has received a fine worth £95,450 after the UK Gambling Commission conducted an investigation into social responsibility failings at one of its UK retail locations. 

The adult gaming centre operator has agreed to pay the sum after having failed to interact with one customer that had gambled between the hours of 1.50pm to 6.43pm on 1 November, as well as between 1.28pm on 2 November and 00.57am on 3 November.

“This was a clearcut case of an operator failing to follow rules aimed at keeping consumers safe from harm,” stated Andrew Rhodes, UKGC CEO, underlining the group’s failures.

“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.”

Over the course of their extensive gambling at Merkur’s Stockport centre, the customer lost a total of £1,981, which has been considered by the UKGC as a breach of its Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP). These regulations state that premises-based businesses are required to interact with customers showing signs of gambling harm.

The Commission acknowledged that Merkur co-operated throughout the investigation, and while the company had been considered to have proper practices and protections in place on the whole, it attributed the failures to premises staff ‘not implementing policies and procedures effectively’. Merkur has taken immediate action to address this issue at its Stockport adult gaming centre. 

Rhodes concluded: “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.”