After months of back and forth with the government watchdog, a Rank casino agreement has finally gone ahead which should soon see the casino company buying out nineteen of rival Gala’s venues. This is a smaller amount than the twenty three venues that were at first proposed, but should see both companies pleased as it will mean that the large part of the deal goes ahead with the full blessing of the Competition Commission.
Rank already own a large amount of casinos in London and across the UK, and this will put them right at the top of the industry with the most casino venues of any other brand by a long way. There were concerns that the full amount of venues would constitute a monopoly in certain areas of the country for the company, so the casinos that they wanted to buy in Aberdeen, Stockton-on-Tees, Bristol, and Cardiff will no longer be included.
Currently the biggest operator in the country is Genting, but if this deal does go ahead as planned then Rank will leapfrog them into first place with a new total of fifty four sites, although there was one other condition to the deal: they will need to sell a cold license that they currently own in Edinburgh, which is in other words a license which they hold but have not built a venue for yet. There were initially concerns over the Liverpool New Brighton site as well, but those have been cleared and it will be included in the deal.
Inquiry chairman Martin Cave said: “We think that removing the casinos in problem areas from the deal and requiring Rank to sell the Edinburgh cold licence to an upfront buyer will protect the interests of customers. The excluded casinos are profitable and so we believe that they will continue to act as viable competitors to Rank in these areas.” The Rank company are currently focusing on rolling out their G Casino format, which is taking place in stages as they convert existing casinos to the right style to fit in with their brand. An announcement about the sale is expected soon.