Report: Ladbrokes Pushing Online Accounts in Face of Shop Closures

UK bookmaker Ladbrokes is telling employees to push online account sign-ups to avoid being part of 5,000 planned layoffs as it closes about 1,000 retail betting shops, according to a report in the UK paper the Guardian. The company plans to close the shops as the UK drops the maximum bet on fixed odds betting terminals to £2. Redundancies to decide which shops close will be done through a ranking system. Part of the ranking system will involve how many new sign-ups an employee brings in, the paper said.