The Victoria Derbyshire programme is broadcast on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel. Twenty-two of them are higher-stake, "Vegas-Style" slot machines with a stool and two or three brightly coloured touchscreens each. They take only bank notes and let players bet 2 a spin every two or three seconds. One afternoon, a woman, keen to hold her seat, places a reserved sign on her machine as she briefly steps away. For some, the machines have led to a serious problem. Mary, not her real name, is in her 70. She was drawn in by a lucky early bet - winning the 500 jackpot. But her luck did not last. "The first time I lost a lot of money, 300... I felt absolutely sick and thought, 'I'm never going to do this again,'" she told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme. "But I did. I would go through 1,000, 2,000 in an evening. I would walk outside without a penny to my name and go home and act completely normal." Mary, and others we spoke to, said she had noticed the atmosphere in halls "change completely" during the past few years as more higher-stake - or B3 - slot machines had been introduced. "You would see people absolutely desperate," she said. "Women would cry. I've known people whose marriages have broken up. One woman I got to know very well lost her business through it. She would put a whole day's takings through these slot machines." Mary said she had never seen staff intervene to warn people about gambling responsibility, or ask them to take a break from the machines. "They would just tap you on the shoulder and ask you if wanted a drink or something to eat," she said. She estimates that playing slot machines at bingo halls cost her 70,000, with another 150,000 later lost playing slots on bingo websites.
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Gambling statistics 2.5 and 0.9 of people who play slot machines in bingo halls have a serious gambling problem 40.3 of the total gaming machines on each physical site. When the new law came in, the Gambling Commission, which regulates the sector, said it expected the number of B3 machines to rise by just 690 nationwide. Since 2011, the number has risen by 6,226 to 10,014 in total.
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