Rank: Grosvenor casino owner hits jackpot as laws relaxed
Rank Group – the owner of UK-based chain Grosvenor casinos – is set to ramp up the number of gaming machines in its casinos after the government said it would relax gambling laws.
Shares in the group soared nearly eight per cent on Wednesday morning.
The firm said the government’s review of the 2005 Gambling Act had allowed it to “enable land-based casino reforms”.
The casino owner plans to add 882 fresh gaming machines to its Grosvenor collection, which currently stands at 1,367.
Total machines following the reforms could top 3,112, the firm said, and requires investment it “expects to gradually complete over the next two to three years”.
Rank said it will engage with officials in Scotland in a bid to achieve the same benefits from deregulatory reforms in England.
Government turns to gambling in deregulation push
The UK’s Gambling Act was introduced and implemented by Labour in 2005.
On Monday, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport published draft secondary legislation changing the regulatory framework for land-based casinos.
The government said the draft regulations form “part of a package of interlinked statutory instruments which make changes to the regulatory framework for land-based casinos.”
This comes amid a widespread deregulation push from the Labour government in its bid to boost economic growth.
Major regulatory changes included the axing of the Payments System Regulator (PSR). Chancellor Rachel Reeves will publish her inaugural Financial Services Growth Strategy on July 15 in a Mansion House address.
Reeves has courted executives from across the industry, including fintech, banking and investment, for strategic advice.
John O’Reilly, chief executive of Rank Group, welcomed the gambling reforms as “very good news” for Rank.
He said: “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.”