William Hill has been no stranger to criticism as of late and they have received the ire of many in the industry again after news broke that the bookmaker has been trying to squeeze as much profit as possible out of fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) prior to the reduction in the maximum limit from £100 to £2.William Hill has always been publicly against the clampdown on FOBTs, with Roger Devlin, Chairman of William Hill, contacting the DCMS’ Matt Hancock to warn that it would leave the bookmakers under threat of foreign takeover.This latest news, however, appears to suggest William Hill staff are being told to upsell FOBTs to their players while the limits are still high.
What happened?
An e-mail that was obtained by The Times newspaper states that the operator had suffered from a “softening” on gaming machine performance, and that players should be made aware that although the law change has been made official, it has not yet come into effect.The e-mail suggests that staff inform players that they can “continue to enjoy playing games as they do currently”.
Delayed timeline
This news is particularly impactful after it was recently revealed that a secret agreement had been reached between UK bookmakers and the HM Treasury to delay the implementation of the rule change until April 2020, despite many manufacturers stating that the necessary changes to software could be made in a matter of weeks.It is this deal that anti-gambling campaigners are claiming that William Hill is trying to take full advantage of, with Matt Zarb-Cousin from the Campaign for Fairer Gambling stating that is operators had “any sense of social responsibility” they would have already implemented the new limit, instead of waiting for their hand to be forced.