I was 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.
Two reviews jump out of Google at me: “Staff nice and friendly and was nice and clean.” Also, “Do yourself a favour and stay away from this place.” These takes aren’t as contradictory as they initially appear. The former may well lead to the latter. If anything, I’m slightly more on board with the first than the second. While I’m painfully aware of the misery of gambling addiction and the particular problem with some slot machines, many people get a lot of blameless pleasure from having a flutter. But to have this place, and thousands more like it, open all day and night every day and night? What’s that all about? At 3am, apart from the BP garage on the ring road, it must be the only place open.
It’s not my business to diagnose or judge anyone, but is being able to gamble at 3am really necessary?
Yes, I know you can gamble online any time you want, but perhaps we could keep the physical slot machines to office hours, or at least pub opening hours? I don’t know how this madness came to pass, but please can someone make it stop?
• Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist
