Inbrief

The UK gaming industry has suffered two setbacks in the last month. The introduction of a 15 per cent levy and a rise in duty to 50 per cent on supercasinos, announced in the Budget, will make some premises unviable, according to Rank Group, one of the biggest operators. In addition, the House of Lords defeated government plans to approve a large casino in Manchester and 16 other new casinos. Rank noted ‘with dismay’ the changes to casino gaming duty and estimated they will cost the company around £8million ($15.75m) a year.