How £100 vanishes in minutes: inside the ‘slot farms’ targeted in the budget

John Healey has hit adult gaming centres with 25% tax. Undercover footage shows how they lure customers

The last of five £20 notes disappears into the slot machine as The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony plays over the shop’s sound system.

That’s it, £100 gone in the space of about five minutes, swallowed up by one of the many “slot farms” that dominate the shopping streets of Peterborough.

All that’s left to show for it is a free KitKat, one of the incentives staff use to tempt customers into staying a little longer and losing a little more.

It’s lunchtime on a Thursday and dozens of glassy-eyed hopefuls are having the same experience, feeding in what little cash they have and cursing as it disappears.