As so often, Flutter Entertainment has beaten its rivals to the punch and announced the shuttering of 57 of its iconic Paddy Power High Street bookies in Ireland and Britain.
In recent weeks both Entain, owner of the celebrated Ladbrokes Coral brand, and Evoke, guardian of storied William Hill, have threatened betting shops closures in the wake of heavily-touted tax hikes that UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to impose on the gambling industry in her upcoming November 4 Autumn Budget.
Britain’s ruling Labour Party government is facing a massive budget deficit–believed to be in the region of £30 billion (US$40.29bn)–and the nation’s lucrative gambling industry is seen as a clear cash-raising target.
Looming Tax Threat
Former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown, some 100 socialist backbench MPs and the left-leaning Institute for Public Policy Research think-tank have all urged Reeves to effectively hike taxes across most gambling verticals, principally retail betting in High Street bookies and iGaming.
High Street retail taxes are mooted to rise from 15 percent to 21 percent, while iGaming taxes may increase from the current 21 percent to 50 percent and machine gaming levies surge from 20 percent to 50 percent.
By doing so the leftist coalition estimate that the chancellor will raise an additional £3.2 billion (US$4.29bn) on top of the annual £3.6 billion (US$4.83bn) betting levies already being accrued.
Job Losses
Last night Flutter’s Paddy Power announced it is closing 28 shops in Britain, one shop in Northern Ireland and 28 bookies in its origin country of Eire.
This represents 10 percent of the company’s retail estate in the UK and Ireland and will lead to around 250 job losses.
“In light of increasing cost pressures and challenging market conditions we can confirm that we will be closing 29 shops across the UK (including one in NI) and 28 Ireland within the next month,” confirmed a spokesperson for now New York-headquartered Flutter Entertainment, the world’s leading iGaming company.
FTSE 100 Entain, the biggest retail gambling company in the UK–as recently reported in iGamingFuture–has indicated that it is looking to shutter around 200 of its famous Ladbrokes and Coral betting shops, again representing some 10 percent of its 2,700 High Street retail estate.
Evoke, which has a FTSE 250 listing, has been less specific about the number of potential closures facing its estate of 1,300 William Hill betting shops.
Whichever way one cuts it, UK gambling taxes are set to rise–significantly–and with it will come inevitable job losses.
(Main photo: Trilby Browne/iGF ColorSpace)
