Justice Minister Michael McDowell has set up a working group to consider whether to legalise and regulate casinos, which are currently outlawed. The ban has not prevented nearly two dozen private members’ clubs springing up in recent years.
Paddy Power chief executive Mr Patrick Kennedy said yesterday that the company was interested in acquiring a casino licence.
“We don’t know how it’s going to evolve in the next number of years, but we have already started looking at how best we can enter,” Mr Kennedy said.
Paddy Power’s online casino has proved popular with punters with half of the company’s profits in the first half of the year coming from online betting.
Interim results from the bookmaker showed pre-tax profits up by 11.5% to €20.4 million on turnover up 27% at €877 million. It turned over €48 million from the World Cup alone.
Paddy Power said the increase in profits was achieved by the strong growth from its internet business, which offset sluggish earnings from its core betting shops.
Mr Kennedy said the record haul of Irish winners at Cheltenham, an Irish winner of the Aintree Grand National and Ireland winning the Triple Crown was good news for punters but not the bookies.
“It wasn’t a bad six months for punters and it was not a bad six months for Irish punters. Paddy Power got murdered by Munster finally winning the Heineken Cup. It was our worst ever rugby result.”
Profits at Paddy Power’s 205 betting shops in Britain and Ireland were flat at €6.7m on turnover 18% higher at €475m. The company said profits were impacted by moving to tax-free betting and the losses from its 51 shops in the London area. They hope to have 60 shops open in London by the end of the year.
Paddy Power’s online arm grew its customer numbers by 80% to 133,374, including 15,411 customers who only play casino games. Turnover was up 54% to €247m with profits up 19% to €9.7m.
The telephone betting channel saw a 18% rise in operating profits to €3.2 on turnover of €155 million.
The company is raising its interim dividend by 22% to 9.43 cents.
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