Friday 1 September 2017

Britain’s gambling industry’s income has climbed 65% to reach a
record £13.8bn in the year to September 2016, reports The Guardian.
It was powered by a surge in spending on the National Lottery,
online gaming and fixed-odds betting terminals. The liberalisation
of gambling laws by Tony Blair’s government is being cited as
another reason for the surge. A recent report by found that 11.5%
of those who use machines in bookmakers are problem gamblers.

Sir Philip Green has threatened Frank Field MP with legal
action. Sir Philip told Field he should consider the warning from
his lawyers “very very carefully”. Sir Philip complained of a
“disgraceful” radio interview given by Field last week, in which he
claimed he had new information about Sir Philip’s £363m BHS
pensions settlement. He accused Field of making “personal and
bitter attacks”.

HMRC says that non-domiciled taxpayers in Britain contributed
more than £9bn in 2014-15, a rise of 1%. There are 121,300
registered non-doms in the UK and non-doms based in London and the
southeast contributed 86% of all the tax paid by these people. This
is the first time that the taxman has voluntarily revealed such the
number of non-doms, which regions they live in and how much they
contribute.

The chief executive of Petrofac made more than €300,000 by
betting on a share price fall at a rival after its boss tipped him
off about his imminent resignation, according to regulators in
Italy. In 2012, Ayman Asfari bought put options in Saipem just
hours before Pietro Franco Tali’s shock resignation as chief
executive. Two days later, after Saipem shares fell, Asfari sold
the put options for almost five times their purchase price.

John Lewis is to add plumbers and builders to its roster of
products. The retail chain has been test-driving its Home Solutions
service in Milton Keynes and is ready to roll it out further. “As a
trusted retailer of home products, our customers often ask us if we
can help them with tasks in their homes,” said Tom Athron, group
development director at the John Lewis Partnership.

“Brexit is going to be a disaster for the UK economy. She needs
to be over there negotiating or at least removing these roadblocks,
not swanning around Japan drinking tea and sake.” Michael
O’Leary of Ryanair says Theresa May should be negotiating with
European heads of state.

FTSE 100: up +0.89 to 7430.62
Dow Jones: up +0.25 to 21948.10
Dax: up +0.44 to 12055.84
Cac 40: up +0.58 to 5085.59
Nikkei: down -0.05 to 19635.49
Hang Seng: up +0.02 to 27974.65
US dollar: buys €0.84090 and £0.77430
Sterling: buys $1.29150 and €1.08600
Oil: $52.74 up +4.0