Betting and Gaming Council Urges UK Government to Back the Local Gambling Sector amid Covid-19 Crisis

The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has called on the UK Government to support the gambling sector’s efforts to mitigate the negative impact that the spread of coronavirus has been having on their businesses.

Yesterday, the BGC urged the Government to provide emergency help to save a large number of jobs in the gambling industry that has been suffering a great deal as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak. One of the top priorities set by the Betting and Gaming Council is emergency assistance on employment costs. The gambling industry body asked the Government to implement some business rates relief, as well as some extra time to pay duties and corporation tax. Urgent access to finance has also been included among the proposed measures to support the industry.

According to the BGC, the financial pressure on employers in the gambling sector has reached unprecedented levels due to the outbreak and spread of the coronavirus infection. It also gave cited some of the measures of support that some European country governments, such as the ones of France, Spain and Denmark, with the UK Government following suit. Chancellor Rishi Sunak revealed that the Government is to loan £330 billion to businesses.

The BGC is also calling for local banks to extend the existing SME support on interest suspension in order to help gambling businesses.

The Largest Gambling Companies Experience Falling Share Price

Yesterday, it also became clear that British racing is set to be suspended from March 18th until the end of April. The news came as another blow to local bookmakers that have already suffered considerable losses of share values in the last few days.

As revealed by some of the largest gambling companies in the UK – GVC Holdings, Flutter Entertainment and William Hill the suspension of sports events would cost each one of them over £100 million in revenue. Furthermore, the three gambling companies warned that the cancellation of horseracing events, combined with the closures of land-based gambling outlets would lead to a further reduction to their earnings by tens of millions of pounds every month.

All of the three above-mentioned companies are experiencing a falling share price. William Hill’s stock plunged by almost 26.5% by the close of trading yesterday, while GVC Holdings saw a 12% decline. The smallest decline in the three of them was registered by Flutter Entertainment, which share price ended the day with an 8% decline only.

As confirmed by the Betting and Gaming Council, an immediate crisis has hit casinos, as customer levels plunged by 90% at a time when the tourism sector is also on hold because of the coronavirus. On the other hand, high street betting shops are also facing a decline of up to 60% in its sports betting trade alone, at a time when all major sporting events are being cancelled.

  • Author

Daniel Williams

Daniel Williams has started his writing career as a freelance author at a local paper media. After working there for a couple of years and writing on various topics, he found his interest for the gambling industry.
Daniel Williams
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