William Hill hikes gaming machine duty estimates

Bookmaker William Hill was left red-faced today after it admitted that the Government’s planned increase in gaming machine duty will cost it £6 million a year more than it had thought.

Shortly after yesterday’s Budget statement, the bookie said that Chancellor George Osborne’s decision to hike tax on its “gross win” from fixed-odds betting terminals to 25% from 20% would have cost it £16 million in 2013.

But today it crunched the numbers again and increased the estimate to £22 million.

Having fallen yesterday, shares in William Hill retreated again today, sliding 9.6p to 341.9p.

Rival Ladbrokes was also in the red, falling back by 6.9p to 133.5p.