Weather Lottery losses mount

The UK-based The Weather Lottery plc’s venture into online gambling appears to be getting into ever-deeper water, with the latest update from the company showcasing widening losses.

The company posted a pre-tax loss of just over GBP 789,000 for the year to the end of July – up from GBP 77,000 in the comparative period in 2010. This was despite turnover being slightly higher at GBP 1,343,000 (2010: GBP 1,231,000).

TWL has been drastically cutting costs and hopes to offload its faltering FCBetz.com subsidiary, which was responsible for GBP 400 000 of the latest losses, and remains optimistic that trading will improve going into 2012.

Chairman Lord Razzall said: “As the results show this has been a difficult year for TWL, not all of which can be attributed to the hard economic climate in the leisure sector.”

During 2011 the company suffered a serious setback when former director Keith Millhench defrauded it of a large amount of money, necessitating legal costs in bringing him to justice and taking confiscatory measures against the disgraced director and his accomplice, a company employee.

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