Responsible Gaming

The house position

The gaming floor is one room on the first floor of a hotel with fifty-eight bedrooms. It is run with that in mind. The tables open at seven in the evening and close at two, there are no machines anywhere in the building, and the room is small enough for the staff to know who is in it.

We’d be happier to see someone have a short evening and come down for a drink than stay on for a long one they regret. The staff are told this directly and are backed up when they act on it.

Strictly adults

Entry is for those aged 18 and over, without exception. Photo ID is checked at the door on every visit, however many times that is in a week, and that covers residents, people who were here last night and guests of the manager. Anyone who cannot produce a passport, a driving licence or a UK PASS card does not come in, however annoyed they are about it.

Nobody under 18 may enter the first floor of the middle house at all, including to look at the room or to fetch somebody out of it.

What the staff can arrange

You can ask for any of these at the door, at a table or at the desk downstairs, and none of it needs an appointment or paperwork.

• A time limit. Tell the door staff when you want to be finished and they’ll come and let you know, once, discreetly.
• A spending limit. Set it with the staff running the table before you sit down. They’ll hold you to it and won’t reopen the discussion later in the evening, so decide it early.
• A break. The bar is in the same room and the garden is three floors down, and either is a good place to spend half an hour.
• A quiet period. Ask reception to keep you off the floor for a week, a month or a season. The door staff are told the same day.
• Self-exclusion. It is arranged in person at reception, in the hall, with the duty manager. It is confidential and is written into the house record, and the door staff are told that day. It can’t be done by email, telephone or this website, because we want to do it face to face and be sure it is you.

Credit and cash on the floor

The gaming floor offers no credit, whether from the house or from anyone working in it. Nothing is lent or advanced against a room account, and nothing goes on a bill to be settled later. There is no cash machine on the floor, in the hall or anywhere in the three houses, and we don’t plan to add one.

Staff won’t discuss a guest’s room account with them while they are at a table.

Signs worth noticing

In yourself or in somebody you came with:

• Staying later than you meant to, repeatedly, and being surprised by the time.
• Going back up after deciding to stop.
• Playing to win back what you’ve lost instead of for the enjoyment of it.
• Being secretive about the evening afterwards.
• Money that was meant for something else.
• Finding the room is the only part of a stay you look forward to.

None of these is a diagnosis, but each is a good moment to set a limit with the staff or to take the week off.

How the staff are trained

Everyone who works the door, the tables or the desk is trained before their first shift and again every year. The training covers checking identification carefully, spotting the signs above, approaching somebody away from an audience and arranging a limit or an exclusion without making an event of it. The duty manager is on the premises whenever the floor is open and makes the call in anything unclear.

Staff may close a table, refuse entry or ask somebody to leave, and don’t need to explain it to anyone else in the room.

How to ask

Tell whoever is nearest: the person on the door, the person running the table or the desk in the hall. Reception, downstairs, is the quietest of the three and is open at every hour. If you’d prefer not to do it in front of anyone, telephone +44 1225 486 390, ask for the duty manager and arrange a time to come to the desk. Self-exclusion itself is settled at that desk, in person.

Nobody will argue with you or try to talk you out of it.