William Hill is about to close around 700 betting shops, putting 4,500 jobs at risk.

The bookmakers blamed the closures on the government’s clamp down on fixed-odds betting machines.

The company said in a statement: ‘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 plans to begin shutting shops by the end of the year, it said.

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.

They have been under heavy criticism for a number of years for encouraging high-stakes gambling and exposing people to the risk of gambling addiction.

The machines have been called the ‘crack cocaine’ of gambling by campaigners who say they let players lose money too quickly.

The government began to look at FOBT machines in October 2016, when it made a ‘call for evidence’ on the number and location of terminals and the measures in place to protect players.

But data from the Gambling Commission showed profit generated by FOBTs grew from £1.05bn in 2009 to £1.83bn last year – a rise of 74 per cent.

Last year, betting shops made £3.2bn from a combination of FOBTs and traditional ‘over-the-counter’ bets, with FOBTs making up 57 per cent of the total.

Got a story for Metro.co.uk?

If you have a story for our news team, email us at [email protected].

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Source: Read Full Article