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The gambling giant behind Ladbrokes<\/a> and Coral has said that it plans to repay about \u00a344 million to the Government that it claimed to keep its staff on furlough last year <\/p>\n<\/div>\n In terms of dividends, the firm has\u00a0not proposed a final dividend payout for 2021 and has told investors that the recommencement of payments will be subject to an ‘on-going review’.\u00a0<\/p>\n Entain had previously resisted calls to repay furlough cash, even as MPs called for it to do so as its profits were boosted by online stay-at-home gamblers during lockdown.<\/p>\n ‘We have kept the situation under review since we first made use of the scheme and are pleased to be in a position to repay these monies,’ it said.<\/p>\n It added: ‘The scheme was a sensible and highly welcome policy intervention that helped us, as one of the country’s largest retailers, to maintain the livelihoods of more than 14,000 retail colleagues on full pay.’<\/p>\n But the group did not commit to repaying the nearly \u00a358million that it had claimed in furlough in 2020, the first year of the pandemic.<\/p>\n The business saw a 7 per cent rise in net gaming revenue<\/a> last year to \u00a33.9billion, while pre-tax profit more than doubled to \u00a3393.2million.<\/p>\nRELATED ARTICLES<\/h2>\n
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