William Hill announced it will close 700 betting shops as it reacts to the UK government’s move to reduce the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals to £2.
The company said it has seen a “significant fall” in gaming machine revenues since the reduction went into effect in April.
The bookmaker has a total of 2,300 shops and 12,500 employees, said the closures could begin before the end of the year. The 700 closures are expected to effect 4,500 jobs.
“The group will look to apply voluntary redundancy and redeployment measures extensively and will be providing support to all colleagues throughout the process,” the bookmaker said in a press statement.
The company did not identify any of the shops slated to be closed.
In April, the government cut the maximum stake on FOBTs from the previous maximum of £100. The machines had been the subject of intense pressure from the UK press and gambling advocacy groups for enabling problem gamblers to lose thousands of pounds in a matter of minutes. Backed by parliament, the UK moved to cut the maximum allowable bet.
In its annual report, published in March, William Hill predicted the cut would reduce betting shop sales by up to £100m a year and could lead to the closure of up to 900 stores.
Tom Blenkinsop, operations director at betting shop workers’ union Community, told the BBC that the bookmaker’s announcement was “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 said. “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.”
Meanwhile, GVC reacted to the news by saying it expects to close 900 betting shops over the next two years, affecting 5,000 jobs.
“We now expect up to 900 shops to be at risk of closure, affecting up to 5,000 roles, over the next two years as a result of the reduction in maximum stakes on FOBTs to £2 that came into force on 1st April, and there are a number of shops that have been identified for closure as part of this process,” the company said in a press release. “This is not a decision we are taking lightly and we will be working hard to minimize the number of redundancies through redeployment within the business, whilst offering redundancy terms enhanced beyond the statutory requirement.”
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport responded to the announcements saying the gambling industry has had “ample” time to prepare for the impact that the FOBT legislation would have.
A DCMS spokesperson said: “The gambling industry has had over a year to make preparations for this change, including to mitigate job losses,” the department said in a press release. “We now expect them to provide the right support to any staff affected by planned shop closures. 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.”
