Author: Olivia Cole

UK gambling operator Rank Group has unveiled a pre-tax profit decline after suffering slowing sales at its Grosvenor Casinos and reflux in traffic as its Mecca Bingo halls which has started earlier in 2019. The group operating profit for the 2018/19 fiscal year fell by 22% from £50.1 million posted a year ago to £39 million. Still, the company revealed that it has already started to see the results of the measures which it had specially designed to boost its revenues and reduce its expenses, and which it implemented in…

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has initiated a review into the online gambling technology provider FSB Technology (UK) Limited because of regulatory concerns. The review is being carried out under s116 of the Gambling Act. As revealed by the gambling regulatory body, FSB Technology has voluntarily suspended the activities on its Blackbet website. This action, however, this would not prevent the company from paying out its customers. The UKGC has called for all customers who have any questions in terms of their accounts to directly contact the operator by sending…

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found that a paid-for Facebook advert for Football INDEX – Bet & Trade, seen on May 20th 2019, promoted a gambling application. The advert’s text mentioned the young English professional football player Jadon Sancho, explaining that he was the third most valuable player in the football stockmarket. Also, a list with the names, pictures and “Buy” and “Sell” values of many football players, including Sancho, was displayed. We've published our latest batch of rulings https://t.co/dbGYsX8oPm Amongst this week's cases, we examine claims that a chocolate…

The largest casino company in Australia, Crown Resorts, has revealed a significant full-year profit decline at a time when affluent foreign gamblers, including high-roller players from China, have been backing away from the company by spending less money on the table. The Australian gambling operator revealed that its net profit for the entire year was estimated at AU$401.8 million, while the revenue which foreign high-rollers generated experiences a massive decline of 26.1% to AU$38 billion. The results show that the VIP gambling business of the company continued to shrink, at…

Suncity Group, the largest recruiter of high-roller Chinese gamblers, is downsizing its operations in Australia after facing recent allegations of links to organised crime in the region. The end of the previous week saw the second-biggest casino operator in Australia, Star Entertainment, announce that it had made a mutual decision with Suncity in the last ten days under which VIP rooms inside The Star’s flagship casino in Sydney would be closed. According to sources familiar with the matter, the fixed high-roller room at the Crown Casino Melbourne would also be…

With Ladbrokes making a decision to no longer provide money for its £2-million-a-year sponsorship with Scottish football, the uneasy relationship between football and gambling has been only highlighted. According to some analysts, it is high time for football clubs’ chiefs to start looking for ways other than joining forces with gambling companies, especially considering the fact that football clubs have long been blamed for their relationship with gambling. On the other hand, experts have projected that there could be other companies’ exodus from their football club sponsorship agreements, despite their…

Premier League clubs have broken shirt sponsorship record for 10th straight season, taking sponsorship in football to a new level. Earlier this summer it became clear that the total amount which would be brought to Premier League shirt sponsorship deals is worth £349.1 million. This amount beats the previous season estimate of £325.6 million. What really scandalised some campaigners is the fact that ten out of twenty principal shirt sponsors of Premier League clubs in the 2019/20 season are gambling companies. The revelation comes at a time when the gambling…

The owner of Ladbroke Coral and many other gambling websites, GVC Holdings, upgraded its forecast for full-year earnings today, after the strong performance of its online business helped it to compensate for losses resulting from stricter regulatory regime imposed on the UK gambling sector. GVC Holdings also revealed that the crackdown which the UK Government rolled out on the fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) earlier this year did not hit the company’s performance as hard as expected. The company, which acquired its rival Ladbrokes Coral in a deal worth more than…

Casino and hospitality operator SkyCity Entertainment has recently posted its full-year results for the twelve months which ended on June 30th, 2019. The company reported a 14.7% decline in its annual net profit after tax from NZ169.5 million to NZ$144.6 million and came after the sale of the brand’s Darwin casino and a lower win rate registered in the company’s international business. The group normalised profit after tax rose by 1.9% and its EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) increased by 1.3%. Despite the challenges faced by the…

Fiona Patten, a crossbench Member of Parliament at the Victorian upper house, has urged the lawmakers to commission a parliamentary inquiry into Crown Casino operations. Her calls come after the casino gambling giant faced some allegations of money laundering following a joint investigation by a number of local media hubs. Ms Patten, who also heads the Reason Party, shared that she wants to see a debate open in the Victorian upper house so that the allegations against Crown Casino are addressed immediately. She also wants the role of the Victorian…