Rank Group shares soar amid UK deregulation push

Shares in the gaming entity Rank Group, owner of Grosvenor Casinos, soared amid the news that the UK government aims to relax certain gaming restrictions.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport published the proposed amendments, which would allow casinos like those owned by the Rank Group to deploy more gaming machines into casino premises.

Share prices increased for the Rank Group by 8% as a result of the government department’s proposal.

The existing Gambling Act 2005 was put into place by the Labour Government of that era and has only seen stricter tightening of the regulations since its inception. However, this shift in gaming restrictions has been supported by gaming regulators, the UK Government, and operators nationwide.

Michael Dugher, CEO and Acting Chair of the Betting and Gaming Council 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.”

This new change would allow more gaming machines to be placed on the floor of land-based gaming premises like Grosvenor Casinos.

John O’Reilly, The Rank Group Chief Executive, stated, “The publication of the Statutory Instruments for land-based casino reforms is very good news for Rank. The modernisations will enable us to improve the Grosvenor customer proposition, helping to grow jobs and generating investment in local communities.

According to Yahoo! Finance, the gaming operator currently has 1,367 machines in operation, with a further 800 to follow. If the proposals were to be successful, then the cap on the machines in operation for the company could reach a possible 3,112.

“We have a detailed roadmap of investments which we will now accelerate as we begin to roll out these reforms over the coming months,” O’Reilly concluded.

Image: Rank Group.

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