More than 460 high street betting shops have shut this year, exclusive figures reveal.
A surge in online gambling, lockdown and a crackdown on fixed-odds betting terminals drove the closures.
The number of high street bookies now stands at 3,338, down from 3,801 at the end of last year, according to stats from the Local Data Company.
The overall number of bookies in all locations has fallen by 758 to 6,634 since the start of 2020, the firm says.
It comes amid uncertainty over the future of William Hill’s 1,400 bookies after a £2.9billion takeover was agreed with the owner of Las Vegas casino Caesars.
The Sin City firm’s focus is on a booming online arm in the US, not its UK shops.
William Hill announced in May that it would not be reopening 119 shops closed by the pandemic.
The mass closures threaten to leave even more empty shops on struggling high streets.
However, it comes amid renewed focus on problem gambling.
Concerns about fixed-odds betting terminals, which accounted for as much as 60% of some shops’ profits, prompted the Government to slash the maximum stake from £100 to £2 per play.
Susannah Streeter, of brokers Hargreaves Lansdown, predicts “far fewer” betting shops in future.
But she added: “That said, I still think there will be an appetite to go to watch a game in a betting shop because there is a social side to it.”
