Las Vegas and Kilburn don’t have much in common. Walking down the Kilburn High Road, you’re unlikely to spot any majestic fountains, glittery signs, rip-off Eiffel Towers or Elvis impersonators.
Yet, like the Strip, this small high street in northwest London has become the epicentre of a gambling epidemic. They're called adult gaming centres (ACGs) and they're essentially miniature casinos that have been squeezed into shopfronts on almost every high street in the capital from Streatham to Enfield. By design, the sites are all unremarkable, but the names and logos might be familiar to you: the bright yellow smiling sun of Merkur, or the dark blue and red frontage of Admiral.
After several tip offs from readers, we’ve been digging into this issue. In doing so, we’ve discovered that 206 of these mini-casinos are spread across the capital. In some places, there can be four or five within just a few hundred metres. By our calculations, Kilburn High Road has the highest concentration of anywhere in the capital.
Yet when councils try to oppose new sites opening, they can face costly legal suits from the billion-pound gambling giants behind these stores. So how were London’s high streets quietly turned into gambling havens? And why has it become almost impossible to do anything about it?
Hi, I'm Andrew, the author of today's story. There's plenty more coming up, including the legal threats the owners of these mini-casinos use to get their way. But I'm also here to break the news that today's piece is behind a paywall. Frankly, pieces like this take a lot of time and we can only afford to do them (and stay afloat) because of our treasured paid supporters.
Join us for just £7.45 a month, and get all our news, features, briefings and investigations for half price. Plus, you'll be supporting the sort of reporting that actually gets out from behind a screen and into the streets.
Mapping all of London's high street casinos
It’s hard to get across just how many ACGs have cropped up across the capital in recent years. It took us days of work, cross referencing data from local councils, company websites, Google Maps and the Gambling Commission, to find 206 of these mini-casinos in London.
The figure includes a small number of sites that are in the middle of license disputes or that are set to open in future, but even then is likely to be a serious underestimate, because large numbers of AGCs were absent from the databases of councils and regulators. Put bluntly, even our own government isn’t sure of the exact number of these mini-casinos.
London deserves great journalism. You can help make it happen.
You're halfway there, the rest of the story is behind this paywall. Join the Londoner for full access to local news that matters, just £8.95/month.
SubscribeAlready have an account? Sign In
