KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 15): Genting Malaysia Bhd's (GenM) wholly-owned subsidiary Genting UK plc permanently closed its Genting Casino Southport, in the north west of England, with 38 staff members facing redundancy.

According to a Jan 13 report by gaming news portal G3 Newswire, GenM said the closure was "simply unavoidable" due to the lack of business due to the Covid-closures. 

The gaming group has already closed casinos in Margate, Torquay and Bristol and has reduced its workforce in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Blackpool and Birmingham.

“We can confirm that we have started a consultation process with all of our staff at Genting Casino Southport, with 38 employees being put at risk of redundancy.

“As we all know, the coronavirus pandemic has created unprecedented challenges right across the leisure industry and whilst we have worked tirelessly over the past ten months to sustain the business as best as possible, permanent club closures have, unfortunately, been simply unavoidable,” a GenM spokesperson was quoted as saying. 

To date, Genting UK has closed three of its casinos as a direct result of the pandemic and is now proposing that Southport becomes the fourth. 

“We know what difficult news this will be for all of our hard-working colleagues in Southport and will do everything we can to support them at this challenging time,” it said.

At midday break, GenM dipped 0.40% or one sen to RM2.46 for a market capitalisation of RM14.61 billion, while its parent Genting Bhd gained 0.47% or two sen to RM4.29, valuing it at RM16.63 billion.