Industry News

William Hill to Close 700 Betting Shops in the UK

Published

5 years ago

July 5, 2019

Niji Narayan

William Hill to Close 700 Betting Shops in the UK

Photo Source: sky.com

Reading Time: < 1 minute

William Hill is going to close nearly 700 licensed betting offices in the UK due to the government’s clampdown on fixed-odds betting machines.

“William Hill has entered into a consultation process with retail colleagues over plans to close around 700 licensed betting offices. This follows the Government’s decision to reduce the maximum stake on B2 gaming products to £2 on 1 April, 2019. Since then the company has seen a significant fall in gaming machine revenues, in line with the guidance given when the government’s decision was announced in May 2018. A large number of redundancies is anticipated with 4,500 colleagues at risk,” the company stated.

B2 gaming machines, also known as fixed odds betting terminals (FOBT), were introduced into betting shops in 1999 and since then, the number of terminals in bookies has grown to 33,468 in the UK. The maximum bet on FOBTs was cut from £100 to £2 in April this year. FOBTs have been under heavy criticism for a number of years for encouraging high-stakes gambling and exposing people to the risk of gambling addiction.

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Niji Narayan

Niji Narayan has been in the writing industry for well over a decade or so. He prides himself as one of the few survivors left in the world who have actually mastered the impossible art of copy editing. Niji graduated in Physics and obtained his Master’s degree in Communication and Journalism. He has always interested in sports writing and travel writing. He has written for numerous websites and his in-depth analytical articles top sports magazines like Cricket Today and Sports Today. He reports gaming industry headlines from all around the globe.