William Hill Plans 700 Store Closures Putting 4,500 Jobs At Risk
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the first three paragraphs.
Bookmaker William Hill has said it plans to close about 700 betting shops, which could lead to 4,500 job losses.
The firm said the move followed the government’s decision in April to reduce the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals to £2.
Since then, the company added, it had seen “a significant fall” in gaming machine revenues.
So should we protect problem gamblers from themselves or those who work in betting shops?
I should add, that my late wife was a barrister specialising in family matters. She would say that many divorces were the result of at least one of the four main additions; alcohol, drugs, gambling and tobacco.
In my view, it was an enormous mistake to allow fixed odds betting terminals into betting shops in the first place.
Anybody with a modicum of sense or knowledge of the betting industry, knows of the problems gambling can create.
The terminals were introduced in 2001, when Tony Blair was Prime Minister and Gordon Brown was Chancellor.
As Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn, Phil Hammond and John McDonnell don’t look the sort to wager a lot of money on these machines, it will be interesting to see, who gets the blame for the job losses at William Hill and the additional job losses that will surely happen at other betting shop chains.
The Anonymous Widower 