Oddslists and scanslips are part of a betting shops inventory for years. Especially in shops with a high amount of bets, the only way to avoid lines at the counter is to let your customers mark their bets on a scanslip in advance. This leads to several problems for the shop operator...

Bookmaker William Hill plans to close 14 shops in the Republic next month with the loss of 53 jobs. It confirmed yesterday that it was closing 14 outlets in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Clare, Wexford and Waterford. Its statement said this would put a number of jobs at risk of redundancy. It is understood that up to 53 staff will be laid off as a result. The British-based bookmaker blamed the economic downturn and the proposal to double betting turnover tax to 2 per cent from next May.

Greek authorities have raided a sports betting outlet in central Athens belonging to Britain’s Stanleybet, only a week after it began to operate in a challenge to the Greek state-owned gaming monopoly, known as OPAP. The decision is likely to reignite argument about lack of access for private gaming companies that want to provide sports betting services in several European Union markets where lucrative monopolies exist.