by Ryan D. Jaeger
Ladbrokes announced this week that it was closing its Paddington
Casino in West London, following irreversible losses of millions of pounds.
This is the second London casino to close down in less than a month, after
the Fifty Casino in St. James shut its doors very recently.
Ladbrokes opened the casino in 2006 after the UK government issued 17
licenses to operators to open gambling establishments across the country.
The Paddington casino was meant to the be first in a chain of Ladbrokes
casinos and was purchased with the backing of former London Clubs International
chairman, Alan Goodenough.
In 2007, Ladbrokes purchased Goodenough's 65% stake in the casino for £
11.5 million.
After the government changed its tune and u-turned on its decision to okay
the opening of 17 new casinos, the Paddington venue proved to be financially
unviable and lost millions in its value.
The casino was put up for sale in February 2008 and the casino license was
sold to the Malaysia tycoon, Quek Leng Chan, owner of the Thistle and Guoman
hotel chains.
Chan entered the UK gambling market three years ago after he purchased the
Mayfair Clermont club from the Rank Group for £31 million.
Ladbrokes recently moved its online sports betting and casino operations to
Gibraltar after the group announced that it was financially impossible to
compete in the English market within the strong tax regime imposed on operators
by the government.
Ladbrokes offers sports, poker, casino, games, bingo, financial bets, lottos
and backgammon on its official website.
