Middle Eastern big spending gamblers are not returning to London’s casinos in pre-pandemic numbers, according to Grosvenor Casinos owner Rank Group’s CEO John O’Reilly, the Standard reported August 17. He blamed this in part on higher prices in London, which he called a “tourist tax.”
This effect was created by the removal of VAT (Value Added Tax)-free shopping from London.
Instead they are choosing Paris and Milan—so that revenues for Rank for the year ending June 30 were £306.3 million, 15 percent lower than before the Covid pandemic.
Gambling revenues for the past six weeks in the rest of the country continued to rise, but London casino revenues only rose 5 percent. Casino revenue in the city is still 26 percent below 2019, said the Standard.
O’Reilly told the Standard, “That’s a function of higher spending, mainly Middle Eastern, customers not coming into town, or coming in but less.” He added, “We used to have lots of middle eastern customers coming in for seven or eight weeks across the summer. Now they might come here briefly but they mostly stay in Paris or Milan.”
