8:10pm Saturday 31st July 2010
By Rebecca Evans
Seventy jobs will be axed next month when a city casino shuts its doors.
Staff at the Grosvenor Casino in Fourth Avenue, Hove, were left “dumbstruck” when they were told of the job losses at a staff meeting yesterday.
The casino is owned by Rank, which also runs Mecca Bingo and the revamped G Casino in Grand Junction, Brighton. The gaming giant, which announced pre-tax profits of more than £25 million yesterday, said the Hove casino was not “commercially viable”.
Rank added that it was trying to relocate staff to other casinos.
One croupier said the news came “out of the blue”.
A Rank spokeswoman said: “As with any large business, Grosvenor Casinos is constantly reviewing its estate to ensure that it is focusing on assets which will generate the highest return for shareholders.
Despite significant investment from Grosvenor Casinos over recent years, the premises in Hove do not have the facilities which consumers have come to expect from a leisure facility.
“We believe that this casino licence would be better used in a larger premises which has all of the prerequisites of a modern leisure venue including car parking.”
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