Entain Consults on 400 Job Cuts Amid Tax Warnings

Entain, the owner of Ladbrokes and Coral, has launched a consultation process to cut approximately 400 customer care jobs globally. The redundancies affect one-fifth of the company's 2,000-person customer care workforce across 11 countries, including the UK, Brazil, India, and Spain. These cuts follow the removal of 500 product technology and corporate roles two months prior, despite the company reporting an underlying operating profit of £479 million for the first half of the year.

Chief Executive Stella David attributed the decision to an increasingly challenging operating environment and the impact of rising UK gambling taxes. In an open letter to Prime Minister Andy Burnham, David warned that a proposed doubling of the machine games duty in the October 28 budget could cost Entain an additional £100 million annually. She cautioned that such a tax increase could lead to 1,470 betting shop closures and 15,900 job losses across the wider sector.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham and government officials have suggested that 24-hour slot machine venues damage high streets and lives. However, industry leaders argue that higher taxes will drive gambling toward unregulated markets. The job cuts coincide with broader UK employment trends, with the Office for National Statistics reporting 145,000 fewer people on payrolls in August compared to the previous year.