700 William Hill shops could close

[DaveM]

Breaking on BBC now, 4500 potential job loses if the consultation goes ahead.

[Seaton-slots]

Just Seen this Dave

Up to 700 branches at risk... It perhaps just shows how much the change to the FOBT is affecting the business model of the high street bookies

here is the link for anyone wanting to catch up with this https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48868335  

[Stepandstop]

How sad that upto 4500 jobs will go 

Now I no a lot of people won’t like this but I’m sick of hearing people moaning about how fobts are a cancer of the high street but it seems no one cares that you can play online for £100 a spin or buy a white rabbit bonus for £2000 

if this government is serious about helping gambling addicts then surely they should consider lowering the stakes online 

Finally I once remembered Darren accidentally playing for £50 a spin during a live stream thankfully someone pointed it out to him 😂

[DaveM]

Betting shop staff are often younger from what I see and their employment is usually transitional. Its only 6 staff per shop on a erage. Most of the 4500 will be probably be redeployed to other shops - 3 in the centre of Chester and 4th a 15 minute walk away so plenty of options. The older staff on better salaries will be the ones offered redundancy.

 

High Street bookies and online clearly don't have the same appeal or impact otherwise bookies wouldn't bother at all with the rent and rates of shops and the wages of people and would do it all online. Shops and therefore FOBTs are there to skank people of wages on a Friday evening or impulse on a lunch break. 

[The crisp man]

The shops where built on the over-reliance of FOBTs, despite the massive revenue they brought in the shops still looked shit, I dont think I saw any refurbished or any real investment.

I agree with stepandstop about online gambling, I mean who wants to play a slot at £100 a spin, it's just an avenue to destruction.

 

 

[Mentholdan]

I live in South West London, I go to the bookies almost every day, I'm not bothered which company I use as long as I get best odds and triple the odds one winner In a lucky 15, so basically that's nearly all of them. The one thing that is patently clear is that %99.9 of all the staff are black or Asian and I deduce from their accents that they are not black or Asians native to the UK. I also drive on a regular basis all over South West London and I'm pretty confident that the figure is %100 working in petrol stations. . I've never come across a white British person working in a petrol station since I returned from living in Spain 10 years ago. 

I am reliably informed that nearly all the petrol station workers are from Sri Lanka, I often ask the people working in the bookies where they are from and the majority seem to be from Ivory Coast, Senegal and Somalia. 

The reason for me explaining all this is I would like to know if its because these are the jobs that British people no longer want to do? Is it the same in other parts of the UK? It would be very interesting to know. Working in a Bookmakers has to be one of the jobs now with the most unsociable working hours, along with 24 hour petrol stations so their might be a lot of truth in the reason that most of these jobs are taken by non Brits? Also, if William Hill shut most of the shops then that would suggest the majority of people losing their jobs would be non Brits. These closures have far reaching circumstances because I'm sure the Government couldn't give a rats arse if non Brit residents lose their jobs. Had the majority of staff been British this announcement might have a whole different look to it. 

I'd be interested in your views? 

[The crisp man]

I think its reflective of the area, low paid roles, long hours sometimes working on your own with abuse from people, for little more than minimum wage.  In the Manchester area, its popular with students and young people who want to get work experience.

 

I remember from my days as a deputy manager you where paid a low wage and would have people regularly try to commit fraud (slow counting etc) or verbally assault you. I was in my last year at uni and left to wash dishes, it was just too much crap and they had already started to push machines way over the traditional bets. 

The government hasn't really given two hoots about other high street chains, so I doubt they would care about bookies. That said local councils and landlords may start to kick up a bit of a fuss as a lot of holes high streets have been plugged by the multi-shops.

[fatcabs]

William hill have no one else to blame but themselves

For far too long they knew this was coming in

they took there eye off the ball and forgot what there bread and butter customers are horse football and dogs bets 

Now there moaning about revenue loss 

No sympathy from me I'm at least £300 a week better off 

All bookies need to go back to where they use too be polite knowledgeable staff I remember going into a coral shop and asking for a placepot slip the guy looked at me and didn't have a clue what I was on about

William hill you made your bed now you have to sleep in it

[mjl5656]

The 700 shops are probably the same ones that opened just to get round the 4 FOBTS Rule in the first place

 

 

[StopandStep]

Quote

despite the massive revenue they brought in the shops still looked shit

That's exactly the problem, shit coffee, torn seats, staff hidden behind security glass so you couldn't talk to them even if you wanted to, laggy terminals, and to top it off they lowered the percentage to make up for lost revenue. There was no forward thinking at all. 

Coral / Ladbrokes have gone the other way and increased the percentages on a lot of them to 94%, brought new terminals and have open counters and better quality shops (still shit coffee though). I have no doubt they will be shutting shops too, but at least they are trying to remain competitive. 

Quote

I would like to know if its because these are the jobs that British people no longer want to do? Is it the same in other parts of the UK?

I think that's true for most of London, not just betting shops, I used to live in Walthamstow and was the only English person on the street. Near me (Devon) all of the staff are English, but the turn-around of staff is very high, they never seem to stay long. That could be local management or the job in general.  

[DaveM]

One of the Ladbrokes in Chester closes at 7pm on a weekend. I was gobsmacked. Was at a pub other end of town than usual so went to this shop for the first time in about 6 months to put a bet on the Spanish match but couldn't. That was before the stake limit came in so no way that shop survives with 3 more in town. The proliferation of shops is absolutely because of the machine limit and their crocodile tears over job losses is sickening.

I reckon the Hills that will close is the one without the security screen, ironically

[mjl5656]

Run down shops

Poorly Maintenance of the FOBTS 

with Poor RTP 

Poor Customer Service

= Shop Closures 

[The crisp man]

I went into a hills shop today for the first time for ages, cost me almost £200 for a bonus on leaders of the free spin world, which paid £6, offered no drink (although some of the other old timers were). But what really pissed me off is; I put a bet on asked for the price which was 5/4, which he didn't hear at first then faffed around looking for a pen to write the price which he did. Anyway after it won he told me the odds where 1-1 (he meant evens) as I had missed the price by 5 seconds. As you can probably guess I wasnt too impressed, told him that if he had checked the board and not had to go looking for a pen he would have seen the 5-4 and what I thought of his service, then I left the shop never to return.

[Mentholdan]

I was in LadbrokeS, Ticket and cash in hand for £50 on a 14-1 shot, The girl was staring into her phone smiling, obviously texting. She finally got round to taking the bet, put it through the machine and gave me the ticket and cash back and told me I was too late. Yes of course it won. I went ballistic, got barred for being rude. I phoned customer services, told them what happened and told them to check her phone and they would see her messaging would coincide with the race time. I never heard another thing about it, she still works there. 

[DaveM]

54 minutes ago, Mentholdan said:

I was in LadbrokeS, Ticket and cash in hand for £50 on a 14-1 shot, The girl was staring into her phone smiling, obviously texting. She finally got round to taking the bet, put it through the machine and gave me the ticket and cash back and told me I was too late. Yes of course it won. I went ballistic, got barred for being rude. I phoned customer services, told them what happened and told them to check her phone and they would see her messaging would coincide with the race time. I never heard another thing about it, she still works there. 

Should have hurled the slips from the holders all around the shop and made her do some work