William Hill won’t rule out closures

BRITISH bookmaker William Hill has not ruled out closures of more of its outlets in Ireland, and won’t expand any further here until learning more about how the Government might update the national Betting Act over the coming months.

Future increases in company betting tax remain a grey area – the Government recently mothballed its plans to increase from 1% to 2% the betting duty bookies have to pay on their retail operations – and the introduction of gaming machines in Irish retail betting shops remains a hot potato.

Yesterday, William Hill reported a 13% drop in operating profit for the first half of this year (after exceptional items) to £124.2 million (€145.9m) (down from £142.6m for the same period last year).