Stanley Leisure Doubles Profits

Britain's biggest casino operator Stanley Leisure, has reported that its annual profits doubled this year, aided by record attendance at its provincial casinos.

For the year to April 30, pre-tax profit climbed up by 97 percent to 31.9 million UK Pounds, up from 16.2 million UK Pounds just a year earlier. Turnover increased by 2 percent to 224.8 million UK Pounds.

However Stanley Leisure, which is holding merger talks with industry rival London Clubs International, said that a big number of major wins in its casinos had narrowed their win margin.

"There have been a number of material losses to major players which, although within normal limits, have caused our win margin for the first three months of the year to be lower than we had budgeted," the company said.

Their international betting operation also paid from doing much of its World Cup business on the Italian team, who bagged the championship. "The results of many of the games were not good from our point of view and have led to a negative contribution from this tournament," Stanley said.

However, Stanley enjoyed health on its casinos outside of London following the government deregulation of the casino sector in October.

"In the second half of the year attendance levels grew by an unprecedented 17 percent with our recently refurbished casinos reporting a 23 percent growth in attendance," Stanley said.