Surely supplying bookies is a safe bet? William Hill announce closures.

5th July 2019.

Somewhere a supplier of 3 inch long biros is starting to worry as Bookmaker William Hill has announced it plans 700 store closures putting 4,500 jobs at risk.

The firm said the move followed the government’s decision in April to reduce the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBT) to £2.

Since then, the company added, it had seen “a significant fall” in gaming machine revenues.

William Hill, which has 2,300 shops and 12,500 employees, said the closures could begin before the end of the year.

“The group will look to apply voluntary redundancy and redeployment measures extensively and will be providing support to all colleagues throughout the process,” its statement said.

In its annual report, published in March, William Hill forecast that the government’s decision would reduce betting shop sales by up to £100m a year and could lead to the closure of up to 900 stores.

When the government reduced the stake limit, the Association of British Bookmakers warned that the move would lead to job losses in betting shops.

Tom Blenkinsop, operations director at betting shop workers’ union Community, described the bookmaker’s announcement as “devastating news for thousands of betting shop workers”.

He urged William Hill to engage with the union immediately, so that staff could get additional support and advice during the consultation.

“The government also has a role to play and must look at what support they can offer to workers whose jobs are threatened,” he added.

“Workers don’t deserve to be the victims of the changes happening in the industry as a result of either government policy or the significant shift towards online gambling.”

A spokesperson from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said: “By cutting the maximum FOBT stake from £100 a spin to £2, we are helping to stop extreme losses by those who can least afford them. The gambling industry has had over a year to make preparations for this change, including to mitigate job losses. We now expect them to provide the right support to any staff affected by planned shop closures.”

Adam Bradford, founder of the Safer Online Gambling Group, said: “These jobs were inevitably going to go and at least represent a decline in the misery of betting on the High Street.

“Perhaps William Hill can deploy its staff into treating addicts and supporting those who are vulnerable across their other betting outlets.”

Bookmakers were seen by many commercial landlords as their saviours – spreading out and filling the gaps left as retailer after retailer cut stores or went bust.

The truth is, bookies had a lot in common with the retailers they were replacing – most of their business was moving inexorably on-line.

The last thing keeping the physical stores open in some areas were those controversial Fixed Odds Betting Terminals.

These shop closures are unlikely to be the end of it. The other gambling chains are sure to follow suit.

A KPMG report in 2017 had predicted that a cut to a £2 stake could force half the country’s 8,700 betting shops to close with the loss of 15,000 to 20,000 jobs.

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