Reduced gambling profits due to good weather

Big in the Irish gambling news reports recently is the fact that Ladbrokes and Rank are blaming the weather for a downturn in profits; not because it has been bad but because it has been too warm thereby keeping gamblers away from the casinos and bingo halls. This could well be true as there is nowhere in the Irish gambling news that pure online gambling companies such as 888 are suffering. Rank is mostly dependent on footfall into the casinos and bingo halls but of course Ladbrokes has a full range of online gambling as well as high street shops which was probably not so badly affected but apparently the gambling shops in the UK make heavy profits on the Fixed Odds Betting Terminals so fewer people in the shops means less income from those. These gambling machines are of course illegal in Ireland.  William Hill on the other hand is in the Irish gambling news for a new venture in Australia where it is reported to have purchased the Australian online gambling provider Tomwaterhouse.com which we have never heard of here in Ireland but apparently has something around 5% of the market in Australia which would give William Hill something around 25% market share by turnover which if the reports in the Irish gambling news are correct would be above our own Paddy Power who operate under the Sportsbet label. There are also unconfirmed reports that at least one investor who lined up a bid for Betfair has pocketed over £10 million by reducing his stake in the company. This looks like smart gambling as by building up a sizeable shareholding he has driven up the price of the shares in anticipation of a bid and then he sells down his holding when the price is high and of course the share price drops again.