Following the British government's requests from regulators of online fruit machines to reduce the amount of money gamblers lose in online fruit machines, the country's two biggest bookmakers, Ladbrokes Plc and William Hill Plc, have both suffered from significant losses over the past month.
According to the request made by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to the Gambling Commission, companies offering online fruit machines should "give particular priority" to "the risks coupled with fixed odds betting terminals. The online fruit machines and slots offered by the two companies account for a third of their sales, and are a consistently growing source of earnings each year.
William Hill has suffered its biggest decrease in revenues ever over the past month, with a fall of 5.5 percent, while Ladbrokes experienced a drop of 3.2 percent. All this follows the "serious regret" expressed by the sports minister regarding his required arbitration in the recent dispute over the horse racing industry.
In the London Stock Exchange, the two companies fell significantly in value following the cuts in losses for gamblers of online fruit machines. William Hill declined by 23.5 pence, and Ladbrokes dropped to 315.5 pence - a 10.5 pence difference.
London's Lehman Brothers analyst, Julian Easthope, expressed that bookmakers such as William Hill and Ladbrokes will "definitely be worried" about the plan,. After estimating that the online fruit machines and slots account for approximately a third of the turnover provided by betting shops.
As he told reporters, "I'm completely confused and bemused by this. Why increase all the opportunities and then change their minds four months later?"
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