900 Gaming Machines Coming to Rank Group Establishments
The government has released new draft casinos regulations that could make changes to the regulatory framework for land-based casinos.
Key Facts:
- The Casinos (Gaming Machines and Mandatory Conditions) Regulations has been laid before Parliament in draft form
- Two linked statutory instruments have been revealed
- Regulations have to be passed by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords to become law
- Rank Group is among the companies preparing for the change
Labour has primarily focused on changing online regulations since coming to power last year, introducing slot stake limits and other measures such as a statutory gambling levy.
But the government is now turning its attention to casinos, with draft regulations being published that could allow far more gaming machines in these properties.
A pair of draft documents have been published that will now be debated in Parliament ahead of votes in the House of Commons, then the House of Lords.
The government’s minister for sport, tourism and heritage, Nigel Huddleston, said: “The Review of the Act is an opportunity to step back and take a wider look across the issues, but improvements can and will continue to be made separately to the Review as well.”
Rank Group Reveals Plans
Should the draft regulations be passed into law, changes would come into effect in July.
Rank Group, which runs the Grosvenor Casinos properties in the UK, is already preparing for the change with an announcement of its plans.
The company intends to roll out a total of 882 new gaming machines to its current Grosvenor estate, which stands at 1,367 machines.
That would take the total number of gaming machines at Grosvenor Casinos to more than 2,000, with the current number being almost doubled by the expansion.
Rank Group provided the update in a statement released to the London Stock Exchange.
Chief executive of Rank Group, John O’Reilly, said the government move is “very good news” for the company.
He added: “The modernisations will enable us to improve the Grosvenor customer proposition, helping to grow jobs and generating investment in local communities. We have a detailed roadmap of investments which we will now accelerate as we begin to roll out these reforms over the coming months.”
BGC Backs Modernisation Plans
The government’s proposed regulation changes have been backed by the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), which represents UK casinos.
The chief executive of the BGC, Michael Dugher, said: “Casinos are a vital pillar of the UK’s leisure, hospitality and tourism sector and we welcome the government’s consultation response which is positive progress on the modest, long-overdue but mission critical modernisation reforms needed for the land-based casino sector to compete and thrive.”
The BGC noted that casinos in the UK employ over 10,000 people, therefore being able to contribute £300 million a year in tax and £800 million a year to the economy.
Dugher added: “While we welcome these proposals, attention must now shift to the timeline for implementing policy changes and we urge the government to urgently set out a clear timeline for progressing the relevant legislation to make them reality for our members.”
