Bid to extend Sunderland Merkur Slots opening to 24 hours branded 'disappointing' by Northumbria Police

Last year (2021), Sunderland City Council’s planning department received an application for a former William Hill store, in Holmeside, in the city centre.

The bid from Cashino Gaming Ltd aimed to set up an adult arcade at the site operating under the Merkur Slots brand, offering low stakes slot machines, bingo machines and tablets.

According to a planning statement submitted to council officials, the venue would be a place for people to “spend their spare change” and “enjoy their favourite pastime.”

As part of the planning application, applicants confirmed Merkur Slots venues typically operate on a 24-hour basis and that similar hours were being proposed for the Holmeside premises.

Although the adult gaming centre use was approved by Sunderland City Council, its operating hours were scaled back by local authority planners after Northumbria Police raised objections.

This included concerns about “the existing proliferation of gambling opportunities and the likely policing, crime and disorder implications”.

Council development chiefs approved operating hours at 8am to midnight, seven days a week , to help “safeguard the amenity of nearby occupiers”.

The adult gaming centre has now been operating for around a year and a new application from Merkur Slots Ltd (UK) has requested restrictions on operating hours be “removed”.

If approved, the adult gaming centre would be permitted to open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

A supporting statement submitted on behalf of the applicant states Merkur premises are “well run and operate correctly with no issues” with systems in place to ensure the premises “do not attract or take advantage of juveniles or other vulnerable persons”.

The statement adds that the presence of 24-hour Merkur Slots premises “do not create anti-social behaviour, noise or any other crime and disorder that would have a negative impact on nearby residents, the environment, local infrastructure, or wider local community”.

A supporting statement submitted for a similar Merkur Slots application in South Shields described the “evening / late-night customer base” at its venues as “predominantly shift workers”.

A submitted company brochure added adult gaming centres are “not betting shops”, with an average stake from customers being between 30p-40p, and that the centres provide “important natural surveillance on the high street”.

In Sunderland, Northumbria Police has continued to object to proposals for 24-hour opening hours, describing the new Holmeside application as “disappointing”.

A consultation statement from police accepted adult gaming centres “do not normally have much by the way of crime and disorder problems on their actual premises and that the premises themselves appear to be well managed”.

However police raised concerns about 24-hour land based gambling venues in a Sunderland context and the “added complexity and increased demand” on policing, as well as the wider impacts of gambling on “more deprived communities”.

A similar planning application for 24-hour opening hours at a Merkur Slots premises in King Street, South Shields, was recently approved by South Tyneside Council for a one-year “trial run”.

A decision on the planning application at Holmeside, Sunderland, will be made once a period of council consultation has concluded.

For more information on the planning application, visit Sunderland City Council’s online planning portal and search reference: 22/02668/VAR