THE William Hill betting shop in Fore Street, Wellington, is to close – possibly by the end of the year.

The WWN has learned from a non-company source that the shop will close along with about 500 others in Britain.

It amounts to about a third of its betting shops and follows the Government’s decision to slash the maximum stake permitted on fixed-odds terminals, dubbed the ‘crack cocaine’ of gambling by critics.

Britain cut the maximum stake allowed to £2 in April after complaints that the machines, which had previously let gamblers bet up to £100 every 20 seconds, were highly addictive and allowed players to rack up big losses.

William Hill warned last year that hundreds of shops could be closed after it suffered a significant fall in revenue since the change.

It said the closures would put about 4,500 of its 12,500 jobs at risk. It is understood four full-time jobs are affected in Wellington.