Spin doctors: gambling firms adopt hard tactics to flood towns with 24-hour slot machines
Companies deploy highly-paid lawyers and appear to mislead councillors – but local authorities are fighting back
It is almost 2am in Peterborough and a handful of punters are wordlessly feeding their money into the machines at Merkur Slots.
A fragment of a song, the lyric “nothing to lose”, drifts through the shop as their funds rapidly evaporate. Closing time is fast approaching, but that does not mean the end of the gambling.