Responsible Gaming

Where we stand

The Orangery Room is one glazed room on a forty-acre estate. It exists so that guests can learn a game, spend an hour at a table after dinner, or sit at the counter with a coffee and watch other people play badly. It is not a way for anybody to fix a money problem, and we would rather say so here than imply otherwise.

Our staff are trained to notice the point at which an evening stops being enjoyable, and to step in before somebody else has to. A host who closes a table early has the backing of the house manager, every time.

It bears repeating that this website carries no gambling at all. There is nothing on these pages to stake, nothing to win and no payment to make. The casino is a physical room you walk into.

Strictly adults

• Entry begins at 18, or at the higher age where local rules set one.
• Photo identification is checked at the Orangery Room door on every visit, regardless of how old a guest appears or how often they have stayed.
• Younger guests may sleep in the bedrooms, eat in all three dining rooms and swim in the Bath House at family hours. They may not cross into the casino room, with or without an adult.
• Where a document is missing, borrowed, damaged or merely photographed on a telephone, the door team refuse entry without debating it.
• The Long Library becomes adults-only after 21:30, which is a licensing matter rather than a casino one.

What a host can arrange

• A finishing time. Tell a host when you intend to stop and they will come and tell you when that moment arrives.
• A ceiling for the evening. Name a figure before your first hand and the floor team will hold you to it rather than quietly let it slide.
• A cooling-off period. Ask to be turned away at the door for a week, a month or a season, and you will be.
• Self-exclusion. A written agreement for a fixed term, kept in confidence at the casino desk. We do not shorten one on request, however reasonable the request sounds at the time.

Credit is never extended anywhere on the estate. There is no cash machine on the casino floor, the machine alcove takes no banknotes, and no bar or restaurant bill may be charged against the casino.

Signs it is worth stopping

• Staying later, or spending more, than the figure you had in mind when you walked in.
• Going back to the table specifically to recover money already lost.
• Playing with money meant for rent, bills, school or someone else entirely.
• Borrowing, selling or quietly moving money about in order to keep playing.
• Lying about how long you were in the room, or feeling relief that nobody asked.
• Choosing the casino over sleep, work, or the people who came with you.

If two or three of those ring true, speak to a host or to one of the organisations below. Nothing said to our staff is written into a guest record, and nothing is mentioned to anyone you are travelling with.

Independent help

These three organisations are free to use, confidential and wholly independent of the Ambervale Casino Hotel. We have no commercial relationship with any of them.

• Gambling Therapy – online groups, live chat and one-to-one support in several languages: gamblingtherapy.org
• Gamblers Anonymous – a fellowship running regular meetings, by video and in church halls, across most of the world: gamblersanonymous.org
• Gam-Anon – support for the partners, parents, children and friends of somebody who gambles: gam-anon.org

Reception also keeps the details of the nearest local helpline at the desk and will hand them over without a question and without being asked twice.

Staff and training

Nobody works a shift in the Orangery Room until they have been briefed on age checks, on refusing service and on how to approach a guest having a bad night. The briefing is repeated every six months, and the door team practise refusals out loud, because the awkwardness is easier the second time.

Our marketing follows the same rule as our floor. We advertise the hotel, the park and the casino to adults, we do not promise winnings, and we do not send gambling-related offers to anyone who has asked us to stop.

Talk to us first

If you want something in place before you travel, a limit, an exclusion, or simply a quiet word with a host on arrival, write to [email protected] and head it for the attention of whoever is running the Orangery Room that season.