In the United Kingdom and the Betting and Gaming Council has declared that it is unhappy with today’s decision from Prime Minister Boris Johnson (pictured) to temporarily close all casinos and retail betting shops in the city of Liverpool.
The London-headquartered organization represents approximately 90% of gaming, sportsbetting, casino and bingo operators in the United Kingdom and expressed its dissatisfaction only minutes after Johnson introduced a new three-tiered system to help the nation overcome the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Although most areas of the country are to initially be placed in the ‘medium’ alert level, Liverpool and its 1.5 million inhabitants are set to start life in the ‘high’ category from Wednesday morning with the closure of all area casinos, betting shops, leisure centers and gyms.
Definitive denunciation:
The Betting and Gaming Council used an official tweet to express its frustration that officials had decided to impose the new restrictions on Liverpool without first having shown pertinent scientific evidence as to the effectiveness of the coming regime. The organization is also said to be upset about the perceived lack of financial support for impacted businesses as well as the seeming inadequacy of the government’s nationwide track-and-trace system.
Read the tweet from the Betting and Gaming Council…
“Hugely disappointing announcement from Boris Johnson that hundreds of betting shops and six casinos, employing 2,300 people in the Liverpool city region, are to close from Wednesday. This is despite there being no evidence that they contribute to the spread of coronavirus.”
Added areas:
Alongside Liverpool, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported that the English county of Nottinghamshire as well as large tracts of Derbyshire, South Yorkshire, Cheshire and Lancashire are to also be placed under ‘high’ alert level restrictions. These are to purportedly furthermore forbid people from multiple households from mixing indoors while making most hospitality venues such as restaurants and pubs subject to a 10pm curfew.
Pessimistic position:
The Chief Medical Officer for England, Professor Chris Whitty, reportedly told the BBC that he was not confident the new lockdown regime ‘would be enough to get on top of’ coronavirus, which has so far claimed the lives of almost 43,000 locals including 92 only yesterday. The nation’s top medical professional purportedly also stated that local authorities in ‘very high’ alert areas may have to take further steps although Johnson responded by proclaiming that he was ruling out the ‘extreme route’ of a national lockdown ‘right now.’
Johnson reportedly proclaimed…
“This is not how we want to live our lives but this is the narrow path we have to tread between the social and economic trauma of a full lockdown and the massive human and, indeed, economic cost of an uncontained epidemic.”