William Hill Plans 700 Store Closures Putting 4,500 Jobs At Risk

[iansheff 88]

As the title says Hills looking to close 700 stores, Since the government's decision in April to reduce the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals to £2.there had been a significant reduction in gaming machines revenue. You have to feel for the people who look like losing their jobs.

 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48868335

[Nightbird 0]

I have no spite towards the staff that will need to find new jobs, but this is good news. The gambling industry is terrible and damages people.

[lil-minx92 10]

Great news apart from to those losing their jobs.

 

Lets hope a few more close.

 

At the end of the day, a new tenant will take the shops and probably create new jobs to replace the ones that were lost

[bendix 10]

inevitable really.  In an age where gambling online is so easy and private (if you're of that ilk) the FOBTs were the only thing keeping betting shops alive.   With them unsustainable, they will go the same way as much of the rest of the high street.

 

 

[Top Cats Hat 10]

3 hours ago, iansheff said:

You have to feel for the people who look like losing their jobs.

Yes, but not as much as I feel for those whose lives are ruined by these devices where (mainly very poor) people effectively hand over their money to (mainly very rich) people.

[lil-minx92 10]

27 minutes ago, Top Cats Hat said:

Yes, but not as much as I feel for those whose lives are ruined by these devices where (mainly very poor) people effectively hand over their money to (mainly very rich) people.

And quite often other peoples money.

 

 

[I1L2T3 10]

5 hours ago, iansheff said:

As the title says Hills looking to close 700 stores, Since the government's decision in April to reduce the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals to £2.there had been a significant reduction in gaming machines revenue. You have to feel for the people who look like losing their jobs.

 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48868335

Great news.

 

There are better jobs out there for the people impacted.

[banjodeano 31]

6 hours ago, Nightbird said:

I have no spite towards the staff that will need to find new jobs, but this is good news. The gambling industry is terrible and damages people.

but they will only be replaced by someone else. gambling is as old as the hills

[Top Cats Hat 10]

1 hour ago, banjodeano said:

but they will only be replaced by someone else. gambling is as old as the hills

Irrelevant.

 

Tempting casual gamblers in and making it easy for them needs to be stopped. If people really want to gamble, let them play cards with their mates then at least the money stays in the community.

 

3 hours ago, lil-minx92 said:

And quite often other peoples money.

Sadly in many cases, money that is there for nappies, heating and kids, food. 😅

[Sweetcheeks 15]

Sorry to hear that jobs will be lost and I hope that everyone will find alternate employment asap. The FOBT's are gambling where no skill is involved and I would never touch them.  I stick solely to horseracing [Flat and  A/W only] and have made a decent living from it for 25 years after I took voluntary redundancy to follow my dream...and it worked. So please don't point the finger and say it's a mug's game and nobody wins but the bookie. It's all about controlling your emotions and staking within your means, and if you can't afford to lose it..don't bet.

 

[Top Cats Hat 10]

6 minutes ago, Sweetcheeks said:

So please don't point the finger and say it's a mug's game and nobody wins but the bookie. 

Let me be the first to point the finger and say that it is a mugs game!

 

The only people who can beat the bookies and win over the long term are those betting on information from the stables. Even those with very sophisticated algorithms which make predictions based on more information than any punter can every consider, and then only bet on ‘certainties above a specific threshold’, will very rarely do more than break even and that is only after committing a lot of money over a lot of time.

 

If you are betting on reliable inside information, then good luck to you. Sadly that is not the reality for the vast majority of those who bet on the horses.

[*_ash_* 88]

The only reason all these bookies started opening up on the high street since 2005 was the dereg act under Blair. Good way to get job numbers up, and a huge amount of shop income was with FOBTEs, which is reason why so many opened. If allowed, they'd probably just have a room full of them, and anyone wanting to bet on a horse, show them the door.