The Scottish Government has allowed 900 betting shops in Scotland to reopen as of 29th June 2020, after being closed for over 3 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘Draconian restrictions’
However, last minute restrictions imposed by the Scottish Government, including removal of chairs and switching off machines with no live racing streamed have come under fire from the Betting and Gaming Council. The BGC have urged the Scottish Government to lift the ‘draconian restrictions’ now or risk up to 4,500 people losing their jobs.Kate Forbes the Scottish finance secretary said, the measures taken are to “ avoid clusters of people gathering to watch live sport.”
Job Losses
However, the BGC are concerned new guidelines could see employees losing jobs and expressed the measures imposed are far stricter compared to those in England, where all necessary Covid precautions including social distancing and hand sanitisation are followed successfully.BGC CEO Michael Dugher said, “ Our members warned in advance that the draconian measures being imposed by the Scottish Government were unnecessary and would have a devastating impact on their business – sadly these have been proven right.“ Nicola Sturgeon was right to say she wanted every business ‘trading viably’ but the Scottish Government is single-handedly wrecking the viability of hundreds of betting shops in Scotland. Scottish betting shops are bracing themselves for closures and there are thousands of jobs at stake unless Nicola Sturgeon rethinks.”He went on to say, the opening of betting shops with no chairs, machines or live sports is totally against what the betting business is about. Customers don’t hang around in betting shops for a number of hours, most pop in to place a bet and take a seat to see how their race is going. With UK betting shops opening safely, Dugher urged Nicola Sturgeon to rethink the guidelines as soon as possible.