Casino machines save Hill after web bets flop

Latest figures from William Hill reveals how the virtual roulette wheels and blackjack tables have transformed the fortunes of the betting shops.

Last year the group made more than £200 million from the betting shop casino games - £466 a week from each of its 8382 machines around the country known in the industry as FOBTs, or fixed odds betting terminals.

The amount would have been far more - £504 a week or more than £26,000 a year for a single machine - but for the new amusement machine levy.

Hill's new chief executive Ralph Topping, the former number two to David Harding who quit the company last summer, said that was a strong performance and came despite the smoking ban which many thought would empty betting offices around the country.

"We are not like the bingo halls [which have suffered from the ban], because generally speaking the dwell time in our offices can be counted in minutes rather than hours," he said.

But he did concede that the longer betting shop opening hours have helped the group's take and offset the 11% rise in costs to keep the shops open in the evening.

The tsunami of takings from the FOBT machines has seen the bookmakers come under attack for encouraging problem gamblers and speculation has increased that the Government will act either to limit the amount of money that can be won or to put the machines on a more punitive tax regime.

Topping declined to admit he was resigned to a new regime, but said: "The Government will do what the Government will do."

But Hill's figures, which showed a 2% fall in group profits to £287 million for 2007, today laid open the extent to which its internet operation is failing.

At a time of exponential growth of gambling on the web, Hill said its revenues actually fell by nearly 9% last year. That led to a 17% crash in internet profits in the year to £50.9 million, more than £10 million worse than last year.

Hill's web offering has been plagued by technical and upgrade problems but, worse for it and the paying punter, it has not been able to offer "betting-in-running", the web-enabled craze of being able to punt on a horserace or football match second by second.

"We will not be up and running for 'betting-in-running' until October. But 'William Hill' is a very strong brand which will attract customers and you can bet there will be significant marketing campaign at the time," said Topping.

The total dividend is raised by 7% to 23.25p.