UK land casinos suffering

The cumulative effects have seen Barking-based Gala Coral Group Limited, the firm behind the Gala Casinos chain, close four sites including its venue on London’s Picadilly Circus.

Gala Coral is one of Britain’s largest private equity-owned employers and has seen losses more than treble as trading at its casino and bingo divisions slow. Despite the injection of us$ 184 million from backers Permira, Cinven and Candover over the previous twelve months, the company published figures this week showing a pre-tax loss for the year of us$ 591 million to bring its net debt to us$ 6.55 billion.

Britian’s largest operator, Genting Stanley, recently shut two sites in Liverpool and Manchester and axed 400 staff as it deals with an ongoing pay dispute with the GMB union. Genting Stanley recorded a loss before impairment and interest of u$ 16.39 million for the previous nine months compared to a profit of us$ 32.72 million for the same period of 2007.

“The loss from casino operations in the current nine-month period was mainly due to a combination of lower business volume, lower luck factor, write-offs due to closure of casinos, bad debts and higher gaming duties pursuant to the change in gaming duty rate from April 2007,” read Genting Stanley’s financial statement.

“These closures, and I fear there will be more to follow, are stark evidence of the pressures faced by the industry in the UK to which the Government has made a significant contribution, not least with last year’s large tax hike,” said Peter Brooks, Executive Deputy Chairman for Genting Stanley.