In the United Kingdom and the local subsidiary of Asian casino operator Genting Malaysia Berhad has reportedly announced the impending permanent closure of its Genting Casino Southport venue for the loss of 38 jobs.

According to a Wednesday report from G3Newswire, the Genting Casinos UK Limited subordinate described the shuttering of the Southport property as ‘simply unavoidable’ owing to a lack of business brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. The source detailed that the move comes after the operator closed other similarly mid-sized venues in the English communities of Bristol, Torquay and Margate last summer and began reducing staff numbers at its more prestigious properties in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Birmingham and Blackpool.

Reserved operation:

For its part and the online news domain at Yogonet.com reportedly explained that Genting Casino Southport was originally located inside the small Merseyside town’s former Grand Casino building before being relocating a short distance to a new £30 million ($41 million) waterfront facility some eight years ago. The fresh purpose-built venue had purportedly featured a small selection of slots and gaming tables as well as a poker room and a franchise of the operator’s Fahrenheit Bar and Grill restaurant.

Reportedly read a statement from Genting Casinos UK Limited…

“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 while 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. To date, we have had to close three of our casinos as a direct result of the pandemic and we are 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.”

Ambiguous attitude:

In related news and Genting Casinos UK Limited recently pronounced that it would be temporarily shuttering its remaining selection of open casinos in the United Kingdom owing to the government’s introduction of a more severe set of coronavirus-related social distancing protocols. The firm used an official December 30 press release to proclaim that it would ‘continue to monitor the situation’ and hoped to be able to update its customers ‘as soon as we know more.’