High rollers return but Rank still loses £100m

HIGH rollers returned to Rank Group’s London casinos around Christmas, but a busy festive season was not enough to prevent a £100 million loss for the first half of its financial year

The FTSE 250 company’s CEO John O’Reilly, conceded that the recovery from the severe impact of the pandemic had been slower than anticipated and that the overall trading environment in the months ahead looked “challenging”. But he told the Standard that “London was super busy over Christmas and the New Year”, with “Middle Eastern customers back in numbers and Far Eastern customers starting to travel again”.

O’Reilly added: “I’d rather there weren’t train strikes and I’d rather there wasn’t disruption at airports, but London is coming back.” There were also signs that the better trading conditions were outlasting Christmas. O’Reilly said 2,000 people attended a poker tournament at Rank’s Vic club on Edgware Road last Friday.

The operator of the capital’s Grosvenor venues reported a group operating loss of £101 million for the six months to December 31 following a huge writedown. It was down from a profit of £102.4 million in the previous year.

O’Reilly was hopeful the capital is starting to leave the impact of Covid behind: “I think we’re going to have a super 2023, London is back rocking and rolling.”