The tea is free all day here. But you could lose your wages in minutes

To public health experts and recovering addicts, they are the 'misery' machines that are 'deliberately engineered addiction'. To the industry, they provide entertainment in a 'safe, fun, community based setting'. Manchester's slot machines attract hundreds each week to city centre casinos like the Genting, Napoleons and the Admiral, and they come from all walks of life.

Online slot machines are currently facing scrutiny, with the government's 'High Stakes' gambling White Paper exploring tighter regulation.

However, public health experts believe that 'land based' slot machines, and other fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) are just as much of a problem - arguing that other forms of betting - from online bingo, to bets on football - are acting as a gateway to their use.

Despite these concerns, a spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport told the M.E.N that 'modernisation' of the rules, as explored in the white paper - could mean 'relaxing existing limits on gaming machines in casinos, arcades and bingo halls to help level the playing field with the online sector' - and allowing cashless payments on machines. It's a prospect that alarms campaigners.

While thousands mill past the doors of casinos on busy Manchester streets like Portland Street and Piccadilly, small fortunes are quietly won and lost. Here, the M.E.N's Ethan Davies explores the slot machine palaces that one expert has described as the gambling industry's 'golden goose'.

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The bright sunshine and cacophony of trams, buses, and hawkers on Piccadilly Gardens soon ceases, on stepping inside Admiral Casino, on the corner of Lever Street.

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