Lower win margins at its London casinos had a detrimental impact upon revenue growth for the Rank Group in the three months to October 16.
The UK-based casino and leisure operator said it experienced strong growth in online and mobile gaming and, although its Grosvenor Casinos division sustained growth in customer visits, like-for-like revenue was down one per cent on the same period last year.
The company revealed that the seven per cent rise in customer visits it experienced did not offset an eight per cent fall in spend per visit due to the lower win margin. Despite strong performance from its regional casinos, Grosvenor’s London casinos saw win margin fall by nearly three per cent.
For the first 42 weeks of the year, overall group revenues were up three per cent.
“Rank has traded in line with the equivalent period last year,” CEO Ian Burke said in a conference call on Friday. “The stand-out performance by Meccabingo.com was offset by continued weakness from our operations in Spain. Grosvenor Casinos continues to drive visits but win margin in our London venues in the period held back revenue growth.
“Our Spanish operations continue to be affected by economic conditions and the smoking ban. Nevertheless, we see Spain as an attractive market for the long term.
“Rank is in a strong position to face the tougher trading conditions than many observers predict for 2012.”
Rank is planning to expand its casino estate to 45 venues by 2015, the latest of which opened earlier this month in Stockton-on-Tees.
